To the editor:

Last year the Barrington Town Council approved the spending of $69,750 to Traverse Landscape Architects for an “Athletic Fields Condition and Needs Analysis.” 

The resulting report makes recommendations such as renovating and replacing fields, improving the maintenance of existing fields, and an” increase in spaces that can sustain more use.” The recommended short-term goals shown on this report include a new synthetic turf field at Victory Field (Barrington High School) and/or St. Andrew’s Farm, or as an alternative option, a “hybrid-stitched” system at Victory Field. A separate goal is to rebuild the grass at lower Chianese Field with better grading drainage to make it more usable. The report states that the middle field at Chianese would be “cost-prohibitive” because the field resides over a landfill and in a Well Head Protection area.

The cost estimates prepared in the report show a projected budget of $3.4M to replace Victory Field with synthetic turf and totally replace the track, including new lighting, scoreboards, field goal poles, etc. There are also lower cost options for hybrid stitched turf or lesser track upgrades. 

The budget shown for the other recommended turf field, at St. Andrew’s Farm is $1.9M, or $473,000 for a hybrid-stitched field. The recommendations for lower Chianese in the report cost $231,000 for drainage and natural grass improvements.

With these recommendations from our paid experts, why is Councilman Humm proposing to spend $4.8M on a synthetic turf field at lower Chianese Field?  

One reason given during the Town Council meeting on Feb. 5 was that as the Town Council they have no jurisdiction over the School Committee and Victory Field is on school grounds.  

Is this how we want our local government to work in our small town?  

We spend millions more as taxpayers because we can’t get the various elected officials to work together to find the most efficient solution? Why are we spending hundreds of thousands of dollars each year on consultants if we are not heeding their advice? 

We just approved $250M for school construction including changes at the high school, why wouldn’t we wrap this recommendation into that project, even if it meant giving some control to the school committee?

I personally am not sold on the use of synthetic turf anywhere in our community. There are health concerns, safety concerns, and environmental concerns. In the past Barrington residents have successfully opposed synthetic turf for these reasons. But even if we together decide that these fields are needed, it is fiscally irresponsible to proceed with this proposal.

Mike Arden

Barrington