Parks and Recreation Commissioner Don Reisner once again floated the idea to build only one field at the SMA property at the Commission meeting last night.His proposal garnered support from Director JuJu Muccaccio, but other Commissioners had questions.
“I would love to see only one field up at SMA,” Muccaccio said. “I really believe that if we put in a second field the town of Dedham will kill us” for cutting down the trees.
Reisner said he would prefer putting one multi-use turf field on the property instead of two baseball diamonds.He suggested that money left over could be transferred to the Striar property.Such a transfer would require Town Meeting approval.The Town purchased the property in 2006 with the promise of getting at least three fields on the site.
“We haven’t rushed into this,” said Reisner.“I want to make sure we’ve exhausted all out options.”
To support his plan, Reisner referenced the Town’s 2004 Open Space and Recreation Plan that compared Dedham to similar sized towns. A chart showed there are a comparable number of fields here as there are elsewhere.Fellow Commissioners dismissed the comparison.
Commissioner Jim Maher noted that the plan included fields at private schools such as Nobles and Greenough and Dedham Country Day.The Town does not have control over those fields.Commissioner Sal Ledda also said that several of the towns listed had turf fields which can be used more often than grass fields with less wear and tear.Several also had smaller youth sport leagues than Dedham, and the fields in still other towns were in “horrible condition,” he said.
Adding fields at the SMA, while bringing online Loewen and Churchill Fields, which will not be ready for play this spring, as well as being able to use the fields at the Rashi School, would allow for some reconfiguration of fields.Several expressed support for building an additional football field.Chairman Chuck DelloIacono commented that Pop Warner was the only youth sport that had to pay a janitors fee in order to play.
“Pop Warner does not have a place they can call home,” DelloIacono said.“If we are going to build any field in the future it should be for football.”
DelloIacono said that he joined the Commission only weeks before the SMA election, but that “promises were made” regarding that property that could not be met.Bids to develop the land were $500,000 higher than what is available.He suggested that there was buildable land behind Fairbanks Park at the ends of Taft Lane and Matthews Street that could be sold off to help pay for it.
“There’s a lot of land back there,” DelloIacono said.“Maybe a developer could buy it and support Recreation.”
