Legislature OKs bonding to upgrade stadium

The work is to be paid for with $2.4 million in borrowing and a $600,000 grant.

POUGHKEEPSIE, N,Y. >> The Dutchess County Legislature has approved the bonding needed for a $3 million upgrade of Dutchess Stadium in Fishkill, home of the Hudson Valley Renegades minorleague baseball team.

Lawmakers previously rejected the bonding, but the administration of County Executive Marc Molinaro provided additional information that convinced all 25 lawmakers to vote for it on Monday.

The previous vote, last month, was 13-9 in favor of the bonding, which was short of the two-thirds majority required for passage.

The stadium work is to be paid for with $2.4 million in county bonding and a $600,000 grant from Empire State Development, but Legislature Chairman Gregg Pulver said after Monday’s meeting that the county initially will spend no more than half of the bonded amount.

“We’re not going to spend any more than the $1.2 million until we have a memorandum of understanding with the Renegades,” said Pulver, R-Pine Plains. “Their contract [to play at the stadium] is expiring, and so is the ... [county’s contract with the] Beacon school district.”

The stadium is owned by Dutchess County but sits on school district land that the county leases. Pulver said the county hopes to negotiate new contracts with the baseball team and the school district for five years, with the ultimate goal of 20 years.

The current deals expire at the end of this year.

Molinaro, who pressed for approval of the bonding, said the stadium is more than a ballpark; it’s “a vital economic engine for our county, hosting great baseball and hundreds of events where memories are made.”

Dutchess Stadium, which can hold 4,500 people, was built a quartercentury ago specifically to attract the Renegades, who play in the single-A New York-Penn League and are a farm team of the Tampa Bay Rays.