Victory Field?

St. Andrew’s Farm?

Chianese Field?

Members of the Barrington Town Council recently discussed potential locations for new synthetic turf fields in town, but reaching a consensus appeared to be a difficult task. 

During their meeting on Jan. 8, Council members listened to a presentation from a consultant hired by the town to analyze Barrington’s athletic fields. 

Art Eddy, the president of Traverse Landscape Architects, highlighted information from his firm’s 150-page report. He spoke on a number of topics, including the soil conditions at Barrington’s fields, the demands placed on the playing surfaces, and the recommendation to construct two new synthetic turf fields in town. 

Eddy pointed to Victory Field at Barrington High School and the St. Andrew’s Farm field as the two locations. 

“You need to do both,” Eddy said. 

He further explained how high school sports teams would likely take priority at Victory Field, while St. Andrew’s Farm field would prioritize youth and community programs. 

Eddy said Chianese Field was his first choice, but there were some challenges identified since the fields are built atop a capped landfill. 

After a detailed discussion, Council members voted unanimously to send the report to the Park and Recreation Commission, Conservation Commission, and the Energy and Resilience Committee for general recommendations, concerns and short-term priorities. 

Council member Rob Humm said he wanted to keep things moving forward on the fields issue. 

“My concern is the more time that we let go by, the less likely that some actionable plan will actually go forward,” Humm said. “That is something that concerns me.”

Barrington Town Manager Phil Hervey asked if moving things forward meant funding specific field improvement projects.

“You’re trying to figure out what would be in a bond for this FTM,” Hervey said. “That’s the question. What projects are in there… What does that number look like in a bond for this next financial town meeting?”

‘The only option’

Council members spent some time discussing the possible location for new synthetic turf fields.

Kate Berard said Chianese “seemed to be the only option.”

Berard offered a few reasons she was opposed to installing synthetic turf at the high school or St. Andrew’s Farm field.  

“There are two things that make me very hesitant. Number one, the amount of birds that exist at the high school,” Berard said, apparently referring to the Canada geese that frequent the field. “Constantly, it’s a migration path. And the fact that it’s in a flood plain. 

“Additionally the cross between school financing and town financing and the amount of time that school players would spend, not that they’re not obviously members of our community. Of course they are, but that tends to be limited to that particular pool of athletes.”

She also questioned whether St. Andrew’s Farm would work. Town officials cited an agreement between the town, the local land trust and St. Andrew’s School. There were questions about whether the agreement would allow for synthetic turf or overhead lights at the field. 

Berard said Chianese would be a location where high school athletes and youth league athletes would all have access. 

Barrington Town Manager Phil Hervey pushed back on the idea of installing lights at Chianese. 

“Lights are expensive at Chianese. But they’re also controversial at Chianese with neighbors. That’s a topic of conversation that needs to be fleshed out,” he said. 

Council member Annelise Conway said building a synthetic turf field at Chianese was a “tinderbox” and she compared it to the push-back residents have had for developing housing at the former Carmelite monastery property.  

Conway said there were a lot of reasons why the town has not been able to make substantial improvements to athletic fields in the past 20 to 40 years — she said it was due to a variety of logistical issues. 

“I do think it’s going to be a hard sell. I really do. We’ve got a 250 million dollar bond. We’ve got, this would be a five million dollar project just for Chianese. You’ve got a new superintendent coming in. You have additional salaries and budgets that may be related to that. There’s just a number of different expenses that are going on,” Conway said.

“And frankly I think the field issue is that we have 30 percent of our population is under the age of 18. And we can’t do a lot about that, but we do need to keep our seniors and they don’t benefit necessarily from these fields. So I think keeping the budgetary elements in mind. Keeping conservation … we just need some direction from Parks and Rec where they want to go and ... and then bring it to the rest of the town.”