Rafael Cuello feels as though a dark cloud has been hanging over the New Windsor Little League Complex since a former league president pleaded guilty to stealing $6,500 from the league through unauthorized debit purchases.

However, it looks as though the storm may be clearing.

With the help of a donation of both money and manpower from Global Partners, New Windsor Little League plans to host baseball at its complex for the first time in about two years.

Ty Kropp brought Global Partners to New Windsor League for the first time in 2021. With the league without the resources to prepare for the season, Global sponsored $1,000 for the league and paid for all sponsorship signs, allowing $3,500 to be raised for New Windsor Little League.

This year, Global Partners has gone a step further taking over field maintenance at the complex. This includes supplying soil for the infield and paint for the baseline, along with gasoline for onsite equipment.

Global Partners, a part of the New England and New York Energy network, has four terminals in the New Windsor/City of Newburgh area and serves as a hub for delivery, storage and distribution of energy products.

Terminal employees across all four sites have also put in many hours of volunteer work each week.

Before that most of the cleanup work has been League President Calvin Brooks and Cuello, who serves as vice president.

“It’s been a great partnership, and I can foresee in the future this thing just exploding,” said Kropp, terminal Operations Manager at Global and New Windsor Little League complex manager. “The people I’ve talked to in town – older people and they were like, ‘oh, my kids went there’ and would say ‘this place was mobbed every weekend.’ That’s what we’re hoping for.”

The fields have come a long way in just the first half of this year.

The fields that support the league’s youngest players – the T-ball field and the Minors field – were completely ripped up. Cuello had received a donation from his union, the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association to rehabilitate those fields by putting dirt on them, but that money disappeared in the theft.

“We had no money to get these fields done,” Cuello said. “Our big field was in disarray. It looked like there was a sinkhole in right field somewhere so we couldn’t really afford to have a lot of kids playing on the field.”

It took about 20 to 30 tons of infield dirt from Devitt’s to rehab the fields and 84 Landscapers came in and did the sod work to fix one field, which Kropp described as “totally destroyed”. They also worked on the t-ball field, weedwhacked, and cut down some trees to let more sunlight onto the complex.

“It took a lot of labor, and a decent amount of money, but the money wasn’t the most thing,” Kropp said. “It was the labor that the fields needed. They needed a little TLC.”

Without playable fields, New Windsor Little League spent the last two seasons partnered with the Town of Newburgh Little League. Spring teams were combined in all divisions and the summer all-star teams have been merged.

While the players, most of which both attend the Newburgh Enlarged City School District, played together with their counterparts from the Town of Newburgh, New Windsor Little League remained a separate entity.

“As far as our financing and our chartering, we’re separated,” Cuello said. “We are together as far as putting the kids together and putting our kids through all-stars together. The boys and girls are mixed together as one unit.”

Cuello said 97 New Windsor players across all levels boys and girls played in the Town of Newburgh.

However, Town of Newburgh’s complex is about a half-hour drive from some areas of New Windsor, making travel difficult for some.

However, even though New Windsor is looking to open its complex again, there are plans to maintain its relationship with Town of Newburgh.

“They go on to play modified, JV and varsity baseball,” Cuello said. “They end up playing together. They’re up there in the school and that’s the same school district. So, some of the conversations we had was that when we get our kids back into New Windsor, we still want to figure out a way to keep them all together because they’re going to be together anyway.”

But 2023 is a long way off. Right now, with all fields ready to action, interest is growing for the upcoming fall.

“Some that I have spoken to are very excited about it,” Cuello said. “They were disappointed that we had to go the Town of Newburgh for the last year-and-a-half, but they’re very excited to be coming back home. If you’re from New Windsor, you’re from New Windsor.”