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Playing fields: First take care of what we have

by Luke and Caroline Golden Kirkland  ·   Friday, March 28, 2025

In recent years the town has expressed a significant interest in playing fields, spending countless volunteer and personnel hours and almost $100,000 on two studies that primarily engaged athletics stakeholders in the determination of needs and potential solutions.

The Gale study recommends construction of two new soccer fields and one baseball diamond. The BSC Group study outlines plans to turn the Stone land on Old Mill Road, the Harvard Park Woods, and McCurdy Track into a $20 million sports complex that could cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in new personnel and maintenance costs. In recent months residents and School Committee members pushed back on Select Board and Open Space Committee efforts to remove the Small land from School Committee jurisdiction, trade it for the Stone land, and transform it into a soccer field. The Select Board remains undeterred.

On March 18 the Select Board announced quietly that an agreement had been reached whereby 6 acres of Heritage Landscape property at 57 Old Mill Road would be acquired with Town Meeting approval for the cost of $440,000, enabling progress toward the aforementioned $20 million sports complex. This acquisition has been negotiated in executive session meetings closed to the public. With little more than a month until Town Meeting, there has been no public hearing to consider the wisdom of this acquisition.

Meanwhile, at Town Meeting residents will be asked to approve a $1.3 million override and a $3 million McCurdy Track rebuild—even as a Select Board reeling from controversy admits a dire financial forecast; the Gale Report and Park and Rec Department confirm that current fields maintenance is inadequate; the DPW implodes in dysfunction; the School Committee describes the current athletic program as unsustainable; and residents last year voted against funding the full-time athletics director the town would surely need to manage new fields.

We urge Town Meeting attendees to vote “no” on all fields-related articles until the town can demonstrate the financial and organizational stability needed to take care of what we already have.

Luke and Caroline Golden Kirkland
Old Mill Road

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