WTNH News Channel 8 / News / 1999

	New Home for Girls Basketball Club Raises Ire of Some Neighbors (Cheshire-WTNH) _ The hoop dreams for a girls basketball club sound more like a nightmare for some neighbors in Cheshire. There's a proposal to build a new building to house the group called "Connecticut Starters". Neighbors living behind Route 322 are saying 'not in my backyard.' News Channel 8's Judy Chong reports. Joe Ticotsky, Coach: "We're a girl's basketball club that's been around for 12 years... It's really taken off with the success of the men's and women's basketball teams at UConn." "Connecticut Starters" helped groom female basketball stars like Jennifer Rizotti and Nykesha Sales. Last year a thousand young women dribbled through. Right now the organization runs its clinics by leasing space at gyms from local high schools, but Connecticut Starters has grown so much, and is growing, that it really needs a home of their own. Ticotsky: "Everybody wants a place to call their won for meetings or practices or tournaments." The club thought they scored with a slam dunk - the state offered to let Connecticut Starters build a 4 basketball court complex at the edge of Cheshire bordering Southington. The proposed building would be centrally located and right off of 2 major highways. But then neighbors like Lori Crispino said 'not so fast.' The complex would be squeezed into a small parcel of state land adjacent to a neighborhood. Lori Crispino, Neighbor: "We don't want parking right up to our street we're concerned about riff-raff, teenagers hanging around, the noise, the lighting." Parents of the basketball girls said the players are a good group of teens, but neighbors said a new building is a great idea but at a terrible location. Crispino: "This neighborhood has been the forgotten end of Cheshire for a long time and we don't want to see something stuck here because its convenient for someone else." There could be a happy ending to this that would please everyone. State Senator Brian McDermott is working with the state in finding another site in Cheshire. Connecticut owns about 800 acres, so the hope is another spot can be found away from homes but close to the highway. Today's News Page. WTNH Home Page. ©1999 WTNH/WTNH-DT A LIN station.

New Home for Girls Basketball Club Raises Ire of Some Neighbors
(Cheshire-WTNH) _ The hoop dreams for a girls basketball club sound more like a nightmare for some neighbors in Cheshire. There's a proposal to build a new building to house the group called "Connecticut Starters". Neighbors living behind Route 322 are saying 'not in my backyard.'
News Channel 8's Judy Chong reports.

Joe Ticotsky, Coach: "We're a girl's basketball club that's been around for 12 years... It's really taken off with the success of the men's and women's basketball teams at UConn."

"Connecticut Starters" helped groom female basketball stars like Jennifer Rizotti and Nykesha Sales. Last year a thousand young women dribbled through.

Right now the organization runs its clinics by leasing space at gyms from local high schools, but Connecticut Starters has grown so much, and is growing, that it really needs a home of their own.

Ticotsky: "Everybody wants a place to call their won for meetings or practices or tournaments."

The club thought they scored with a slam dunk - the state offered to let Connecticut Starters build a 4 basketball court complex at the edge of Cheshire bordering Southington. The proposed building would be centrally located and right off of 2 major highways.

But then neighbors like Lori Crispino said 'not so fast.' The complex would be squeezed into a small parcel of state land adjacent to a neighborhood.

Lori Crispino, Neighbor: "We don't want parking right up to our street we're concerned about riff-raff, teenagers hanging around, the noise, the lighting."

Parents of the basketball girls said the players are a good group of teens, but neighbors said a new building is a great idea but at a terrible location.

Crispino: "This neighborhood has been the forgotten end of Cheshire for a long time and we don't want to see something stuck here because its convenient for someone else."

There could be a happy ending to this that would please everyone. State Senator Brian McDermott is working with the state in finding another site in Cheshire. Connecticut owns about 800 acres, so the hope is another spot can be found away from homes but close to the highway.

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