“Crews began clearing a Sands Avenue parcel this week, to make way for the island’s next ball field complex.But progress for local youth sports programs comes at a cost for the neighbors, among them Sands Avenue resident Frank Forencich.I’ve been losing business all week, said Forencich, who operates a massage and personal training business on his property within view of the site. Nobody wants a massage when the chainsaws are going.Forencich said he and others have expressed concerns over the ball field plan, and were surprised by the sudden appearance of equipment this week. Signs went up on several nearby trees, protesting the irony of the clearing a week before Earth Day.In fact, the multi-use facility has been in the works for several years under an agreement between the park and school districts. The school district purchased two Sands Avenue parcels totaling 9.2 acres in 1997, and entered a long-term lease agreement with the city for an adjacent four acres.The property is expected to be the site of the island’s next elementary school. But with the opening of Sakai Intermediate School in 1999 and the district’s subsequent enrollment slowdown, there are no immediate plans for construction.In the meantime, to ease the island’s ball field crunch, the district agreed to clear a corner of property for immediate use as ball fields.The facility will include a Babe Ruth-size baseball diamond, with a full-size soccer field sprawling across the outfield.In an arrangement that school board member Bruce Weiland called advantageous for the district and local taxpayers, the bill for the clearing will be $1, plus the harvested timber.From there, the park district will take over. Ball field construction will be paid for with $200,000 from the Gazzam Lake bond levy of 1993, supplemented by volunteer labor.Dave Lewis, park district director, said a group of local contractors will do preliminary grading for free, with the district paying for equipment rental and fuel. A contingent of Seabees – the Navy’s construction battalion – will complete the grading, put in trenches for the irrigation and drainage systems, and rough in a parking area.The finish work will be put out to bid later this year, with seeding of grass expected in mid-September.After construction of backstops, dugouts and bleachers, the facility could be ready for soccer action by fall 2002, and see its first baseball games the following spring.It takes a while to build ’em, it takes a while to establish the turf and to get the amenities in, Lewis said.But the concerns of neighbors are likely to persist, even when the heavy equipment is gone. Forencich said the area is served by private wells, and neighbors fear their water supply could be drawn down as fields are irrigated.They are also concerned about the width of buffers left on the site, and fear future park users will cross their properties as a shortcut to nearby Strawberry Hill Park. Those concerns, he said, were ignored by local officials.I have no problems with ball fields, Forencich said. Sports are great, and schools. But I’d like to have a sense of being included in the process.Before work gets under way on the school – which Weiland said was years off – Forencich said the neighbors would likely hire attorneys to protect their interests.As to the ball field clearing, city Code Enforcement Officer Will Peddy said he’d only had one complaint – from Forencich – and said the work was being done within the scope of the permits.Land clearing is by Seton Construction, an outfit that did the work for the Sakai Intermediate School construction. “