State of Cumberland fields addressed
Parks & Rec. Dept. hires consultant to help improve conditions
CUMBERLAND — Parks and Recreation Director Michael Crowley says the results of soil tests taken earlier this month at all of the town’s athletic fields will be made public this week and should give the department a good idea of what it needs to do to improve field conditions.
Crowley said he hired a private consultant to sample and analyze soil from the fields, including the two fields behind the high school, after the Parks and Recreation Commission was approached recently by several youth groups concerned about the poor conditions of the fields. Youth and adult sports leagues reserve fields through the town’s parks and recreation department. Those same concerns were also relayed to the Town Council, which asked Crowley to attend its meeting Wednesday to discuss what is being done to improve conditions.
The town has several fields for youth baseball, softball and soccer, including the Diamond Hill Fields, Bently Field and Garvin Field on Diamond Hill Road; Razee Field on Nate Whipple Highway; High Street Field on High Street; B.F. Norton Field on Broad Street; Berkley Oval on Martin Street; Tucker Field on Mendon Road; C.H.S. Farm Drive; Ashton School Field on Scott Road; Cumberland High School fields on Manville Hill road; Fatima Field on High Street; St. John Vianney Field on Diamond Hill Road; and Currier Chase Play Area on Broad Street.
Crowley told the council members that the consultant will present the findings of the soil tests to the Parks and Recreation Commission on tonight at 6:30 p.m. at the Ski Lodge on Diamond Hill Road.
“We spent seven hours walking and sampling every field,” Crowley said “The results will tell us about the fertility and health of the soil and determine what kind of fertilizer and other soil amendments we need to use.”
“We don’t have enough fields. I think the baseball fields can handle the demand for baseball and softball, but the rest of the fields are multi-purpose and the ones we have are overused.”
—Cumberland Parks & Recreation Director Michael Crowley
Crowley says the recent weather isn’t helping the fields, particularly those that don’t drain adequately.
More fundamentally, players and coaches say there are simply not enough fields to support the town’s many recreational sports players and that new playing fields would do much to ease the current high demand of youth sports.
“We don’t have enough fields,” Crowley told the council. “I think the baseball fields can handle the demand for baseball and softball, but the rest of the fields are multi-purpose and the ones we have are overused.”
Crowley told the council that the last time there was an adjustment in the fees for field use for was in 2014.
Mayor William Murray told the council that the town is acutely aware of the town’s need for more playing fields. “We are overcrowded,” he said. “Softball in particular is busting at the seams. More kids are playing and there is more demand.”
Murray says the town is hoping the Mercy Woods Preserve, a 229-acre town acquisition from the Sister of Mercy in the Northeast corner of Cumberland abutting the Diamond Hill Reservoir, will help. Once a final agreement is signed next month, the Cumberland Land Trust will hold a conservation easement and manage and monitor 212 acres for preservation and watershed protection.
About 17 acres of fields west and south of the administration building will be managed by the town for recreation and athletic fields that could be constructed in the next years.
The town initially will be limited to the development of one recreational field on the 17.5 acres so that the Sisters of Mercy can see how that impacts their continued occupation of their headquarters and ancillary buildings at the property. After five years, however, the town would be free to develop the rest of the 17.5 acres as recreational fields and would also hold a first refusal option for purchase of the Sisters’ buildings if they choose to sell them
This open space purchase stands to be the second largest in the town’s history, the first being the 270-acre Monastery purchase in 1968.
“Once that agreement is signed we will get to work trying to get those fields up and running,” Murray said.