Greenville area officials and the landscape architect who designed and planned the borough's unfinished sports complex made headway during meetings this week, according to area officials.

The project is 16 months behind schedule and more than $200,000 over budget.

Officials are hopeful that at least some of the soccer and softball fields in West Salem Township will ready for play in May.

James Pashek, a landscape architect who heads Pashek & Associates of Pittsburgh attended Thursday's meeting. Pashek and area officials -- from Greenville Area Leisure Services Association, borough council and a citizen steering committee -- toured the complex, pinpointed problems and developed a more comprehensive list work that remains to be done.

That "punch list" now includes 25 items, Parks Manager Erik Bielata said Friday.

"Half of the problems are directly related to drainage," he said.

The tour followed a meeting Wednesday at Pashek's Pittsburgh office between Pashek, borough manager Kenneth S. Weaver, Bielata and borough council President Richard S. Houpt. Weaver said the meeting lasted five hours.

Contractors who worked on the sports complex did not attend the tour Thursday.

The mood was somewhat adversarial between local representatives and the contractors during a closed-door meeting and tour of the complex last week.

"It was great today. Very positive," Weaver said Thursday. "Everyone had a real open demeanor and we were able to resolve a lot of issues," he added.

Bielata said officials have planned a whirlwind round of meetings with each of the seven contractors for Thursday. Those meetings -- laden with contractual matters -- will be closed to the public, Bielata said.

"Everything hinges on Thursday. We're trying to work through these problems together, " he said.

The whirlwind interviews Thursday will be the start of a whirlwind month of activity.

A public hearing on the Act 47 program for financially distressed communities is set for 7 to 9 p.m. April 8 at the Greenville High School lecture hall.

Days later -- although a time and date has not been set -- Greenville Municipal Authority plans to host a special meeting regarding a potential sale of the authority's water plant. Council will be invited.

Council also plans to move its meetings back to the borough building this month, after several months of meetings at the larger high school lecture hall, Weaver said.

You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Tom Fontaine at tfontaine@sharon-herald.com