Professional baseball is back in town, as the Oneonta Tigers of the NY-Penn League have started their season.

But it’s different this year, in a good way: The short-season Detroit affiliate and its fans are enjoying the renovated Damaschke Field, which has a new clubhouse with home and visiting team locker rooms, a training room and office space, public restrooms, sidewalks, a parking area, landscaping, a ticket booth and souvenir booth.

The new digs were funded largely by NYSEG, which spent millions to clean up contaminated soil from underneath the stadium and agreed to rebuild the structures in the process. The city of Oneonta also kicked in some money.

Our community has a vested interest in having the O-Tigers here, not only because we’re so close to Cooperstown, but because the games are a wonderful way for families and others to spend time in the summer in a safe place.

Cities the size of Oneonta rarely get to host professional sports, so we should be even more grateful to those who make it possible.

Over the years, some former O-Tigers have gone on to play in the major leagues, including Curtis Granderson, who made it to the World Series last year with the Detroit Tigers. So the excitement of seeing future stars is another major plus.

We encourage everyone to support our team, take in a game or two (or more) and help keep a great Oneonta tradition going.

Ignoring HAVA won’t make woes go away

It was disappointing this month to see the state Legislature fail to take action on replacing lever-action voting machines.

New York, already the slowest state in complying with the federal Help America Vote Act, now will enter a presidential election year without a plan for implementing high-tech voting systems.

The Assembly has proposed pushing back the deadline to certifying new machines, but the Senate has countered with a bill that would remove the deadline entirely.

Neither possibility will move the state forward. The Legislature adjourned its regular session last week without acting on either proposal.

It’s true that the cost could be high, and there would certainly need to be an effort to educate voters about the change. However, the issue cannot simply be avoided as if it will go away.

Many times, a governmental body can be accused of not acting on an issue because it’s not in the interest of the politicians.

Here, the act of voting _ the security and validity of how the votes are counted _ is at stake.

For our state legislators to basically ignore an issue vital to their interests is a failure of their basic duty.

Even if it requires a special session, the Legislature should be forced to hash out a solution to bring voting technology in line with the rest of the nation.