The Barrington Town Council will host a workshop tonight, Wednesday, Feb. 1 to discuss athletic fields and athletic facilities in town. 

The workshop will be held in the town hall council chambers, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. It will be an in-person event and the public is encouraged to attend. 

During its January meeting, the town council approved a motion calling for the town to explore the three items — 1. Whether to build a new town-owned field house/recreation center; 2. Whether to construct an artificial turf field in town; and 3. To consider establishing a new field maintenance team. 

The motion featured a series of six action items, including surveying the public, researching potential locations for the proposed recreation center and turf field, and a call for public outreach sessions. The Feb. 1 workshop is the first of the public outreach sessions. 

Town officials also recently created an online survey regarding fields. 

The focus on fields follows a presentation by Barrington Town Council Vice President Rob Humm which detailed the problems that have plagued Barrington’s athletic fields for decades and his proposal to solve the issues. 

Humm’s presentation also cited a recent report by the RI Public Expenditure Council which placed Barrington in the bottom third of all cities and towns in the state on recreation-related spending. In addition, Rhode Island ranked near the bottom nationally in recreation-related spending.