MEDWAY - Organized team sports in town will soon have new facilities to call home.
Annual Town Meeting passed articles 13 to 15 of which asked for a total of $4,227,550 to built two new artificial turf fields at and adjacent to Medway High School and to replace the turf at Hanlon Field passed by a two-thirds majority vote.
Community Preservation Act funds will provide $2.6 million for the construction and installation of the turf. The actual turf fields must be purchased with town funds, which reflect the rest of the cost.
The need comes the large number of school and youth sports teams who use the fields.
Being proposed is a rectangular, synthetic turf field on an existing softball and practice field at Medway High School. Another field is being proposed at recently purchased town property on Adams Street, north of the school.
Some residents expressed concern that the town was moving too fast with turf fields and said turf fields represent health and safety issues, such as offgassing and leading to torn knee ligaments.
Bill Seymour of Gale Associates, the firm that made the report to the town and performed the engineering and design services for the project, said the turf fields cost more to build and replace, but the “cost per use basis greatly favors synthetic turf.“
He said a natural grass field can support about 250 uses per year, while a turf field can support about 700 uses per year.
The rest of the articles also passed, including a $45,262,532 operating budget for fiscal 2015.
Col. Michael Matondi, a three-time war veteran, questioned why the Memorial Committee did not receive a budget.
After some discussion, Selectmen Chairman Glenn Trindade noted that there must have been a typo. The motion was amended to reflect the committee’s $600 budget.
Articles 11 and 19, which would begin efforts to replace the town’s old, run-down public services facility, were also passed.
Article 11 transferred $500,000 from the stabilization fund to put money aside in order to help avoid a debt exclusion request in the future, while the latter redirected unspent past Town Meeting appropriations to provide engineering services for the new facility.
Annual Town Meeting passed articles 13 to 15 of which asked for a total of $4,227,550 to built two new artificial turf fields at and adjacent to Medway High School and to replace the turf at Hanlon Field passed by a two-thirds majority vote.
Community Preservation Act funds will provide $2.6 million for the construction and installation of the turf. The actual turf fields must be purchased with town funds, which reflect the rest of the cost.
The need comes the large number of school and youth sports teams who use the fields.
Being proposed is a rectangular, synthetic turf field on an existing softball and practice field at Medway High School. Another field is being proposed at recently purchased town property on Adams Street, north of the school.
Some residents expressed concern that the town was moving too fast with turf fields and said turf fields represent health and safety issues, such as offgassing and leading to torn knee ligaments.
Bill Seymour of Gale Associates, the firm that made the report to the town and performed the engineering and design services for the project, said the turf fields cost more to build and replace, but the “cost per use basis greatly favors synthetic turf.“
He said a natural grass field can support about 250 uses per year, while a turf field can support about 700 uses per year.
The rest of the articles also passed, including a $45,262,532 operating budget for fiscal 2015.
Col. Michael Matondi, a three-time war veteran, questioned why the Memorial Committee did not receive a budget.
After some discussion, Selectmen Chairman Glenn Trindade noted that there must have been a typo. The motion was amended to reflect the committee’s $600 budget.
Articles 11 and 19, which would begin efforts to replace the town’s old, run-down public services facility, were also passed.
Article 11 transferred $500,000 from the stabilization fund to put money aside in order to help avoid a debt exclusion request in the future, while the latter redirected unspent past Town Meeting appropriations to provide engineering services for the new facility.
http://www.wickedlocal.com/article/20140512/News/140519061
Zachary Comeau can be reached at 508-634-7556 and zcomeau@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @ZComeau_MDN.
