By Liz Oakes
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Hundreds of children at St. Bartholomew School could lose a field built by volunteers 30 years ago to a condominium development nearby.

And that has parents in the 600-student school worried.

Heavy equipment operates at the site of a condominium development next to Wellspring Park on Compton Road in Springfield Township. (Glenn Hartong photo)

"It's a constant concern," said Gary Kraushar, whose son Chris, 12, has been in football since third grade. "He's looking forward to playing football in the fall."

After St. Bartholomew School was built in 1961, parishioners filled in a ravine behind the building for softball, baseball and football teams, said Skip Borgman, the parish's business manager.

"Nobody really had a good idea where the property line was, but apparently a portion encroached" on neighboring property owned by lawyer Nicholas Perrino, Borgman said.

Besides the 120 youths who played football on the field last year, about 80 girls on 12 softball teams and 75 boys on six baseball teams also use it for practice and games, St. Bartholomew officials say.

Other schools depend on the field as well, Kraushar says.

St. Vivian School in Finneytown, which doesn't have a field of its own, played on it last year, he said.

This month, construction began on 85 acres off Compton Road that will become home to 434 condominiums in the first of a two-phase $60 million Drees development called BridgeCreek Preserve.

The second phase, on about 25 acres, includes about half an acre of the athletic field, St. Bartholomew officials say.

John Geisen, president of St. Bartholomew Athletic Association, said the group held fund-raisers to raise money to buy the property after the landowner told the parish about 18 months ago the school needed to get off the land.

The boosters gave the parish a check for about $11,000 for the overlapping piece, Geisen said, but they haven't heard back on the offer made a year ago.

Developer Daniel Wolfe, who has an option to buy Perrino's land for the Drees project, said negotiations have been in "good faith." He said he expects the problem will be worked out, but declined to go into detail.

Geisen estimates it would cost $30,000 or more to move the field - if it can be done. The school and church are housed on 17 acres, which also includes a hill, parking lot and driveways that would have to be reconfigured.

The third option, he said, would be to try to find someplace else to play.

But "finding places to practice anymore is tough, too," Kraushar said. "We don't want to have to drive up to St. Susanna in Mason."

Wolfe said he doesn't expect work on the part of the development near St. Bartholomew to begin for about three to five years.

Meanwhile, "we're just going to wait and see what happens," Kraushar said. "It'd be a major loss."

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E-mail loakes@enquirer.com