SARATOGA — The town of Saratoga now holds the deed to 27 acres of land on Route 29 that will be developed by it and the town of Northumberland with sports fields and other recreation facilities.

Officials from Northumberland and Saratoga met on the future park site Tuesday morning and symbolically accepted the deed from Sam Palazzole, president of Saratoga Builders, who donated the land as part of a housing development project that has been approved on neighboring land.

Northumberland and Saratoga are collaborating on construction of the park project and, in the first year, each will contribute $50,000.

Northumberland Supervisor Willard Peck called the effort a first step to a “borderless community.”

“Both towns are seeing our populations grow with young families and we need park space,” Peck said. “Both towns are part of the Schuylerville Central School District which has a lot of kids participating in sports.”

Superintendent of Schools Leon Reed said the park plan solved a number problems.

“A couple of years ago, we asked voters to approve some major capital projects and they said, ‘no.’ When we surveyed them to find out why they said no, they responded we should stay with classrooms and stay away from athletic fields,” Reed said.

But, the district has boys and girls teams in need of fields, and Reed said he is grateful the towns will be providing the space.

Northumberland Councilman Dan Gale co-chairs the committee that planned the park facilities. He said drawings for the park include 6.3 acres of athletic fields.

“We have two World Cup-sized soccer fields,” he said “They are each 70 yards wide by 120 yards long. One of those fields would fill all of Fort Hardy Park.”

Fort Hardy Park in Schuylerville contains fields used for soccer and baseball.

Saratoga Supervisor Tom Wood said old logging trails can be accessed now by hikers as excavation of the ball fields and playground area commences. Gale said a hillside will be cut to create tiers overlooking the ball fields for spectators.

Peck said some of the facilities to be built will be available for use in the spring of 2009.

“Individuals and businesses have offered their services and we’ll be moving earth over the next few years as money and people are available,” he said.

One item that has been created already for the park is a steel sculpture cut out of a pair of fuel tanks pulled from the site.

Wood said part of the land was once a gas station.

Local resident Ian Murray, owner of Brookside Nursery, split the tanks and welded them together before cutting images of two adults and two children in a circle.

“We’ve done some of this kind of sculpture before and I spent time over the winter putting this together,” Murray said. “I thought it would be a nice addition because it’s also part of the history of the site.”

Wood said volunteers willing to work on the project can call Town Hall.