Rosenthal Defends Cost Of Ball Fields On Elm Drive

By Steve Bigham

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal this week went out of his way to defend the increasing costs of the Amaral Property baseball fields along Elm Drive.

The first selectman said it is unfair of some in town to call them “million dollar ball fields” simply because the cost to acquire the land and to build the fields will end up costing the town well over a $1 million.

“The $400,000 it cost to buy the Amaral property was paid for with Iroquois [Land Preservation and Enhancement Program] money, and if we didn’t build ball fields there, then we would have just used the land to look at. I think it’s unfair to include that price in the total cost figure,” Mr Rosenthal said. “Yes, they are more expensive [than first thought] because of the retaining walls that have to be put in, but any piece of property that you build ball fields on is going to have a cost.”

In addition, Mr Rosenthal said, certain parts of the 13-acre lot have been set aside for passive recreation, trails, nature walks, etc.

Still, Mr Rosenthal acknowledges, the two Little League fields have been particularly expensive and troublesome. Far more than anyone expected when they first decided to build fields there. When the town first purchased the land from the Amaral family five years ago, officials were apparently unaware of how unsuitable it was for use as athletic fields.

Part of the high cost can be attributed to the need to install two retaining walls in addition to the extra drainage and irrigation systems.

Nevertheless, the town’s need for more ball fields has been well documented, and by next spring, youngsters will have two new fields to play on.

So far, however, it has not been a field of dreams for the town’s Public Works Department, which has spent the past year, on and off, pushing dirt around. And just when the town workers thought they were done, they were ordered back to the site to do even more work.

In the spring of 2000, Mr Rosenthal offered up the services of the Public Works Department after town officials were forced to cut $200,000 worth of re-grading out of the project at budget time. The re-grading work has long been completed, but unforeseen wetland areas have kept the workers on the site and away from other town projects, such as road work.

“It’s been a source of frustration,” admits Public Works Director Fred Hurley. “Anytime you have a public project that drags over a period of time, it builds up frustration.”

Mr Hurley said the project has taken a lot more man-hours because of the unanticipated field conditions. Still, he said, the town has gotten some value out of having highway crews do the work. Workers have been on the site excavating top soil, screening topsoil (2,000 yards), bringing in fill from Mount Hurley, and shoring up problematic silt fences.

“The size of the change orders, if a contractor had done it, would have been staggering,” Mr Hurley said. “And we solved the wetland problems. We certainly put more than $200,000 worth of value in there, but it did not cost the town $200,000. The town in this case got its full value out of its work force. The only drawback is that some of our road maintenance was deferred.”

Mr Hurley and his crew have gotten stuck with more than their share of town projects the past couple of years. The Dickinson Park bathroom is another example of the town using its own work force to either save money or because it could not get anyone else to do a job.

“I think the town made out well in the end, but this is not something I would promote Public Works doing on a regular basis,” Mr Hurley said.

Deering Construction Company of Norwalk is now on the site and over the past two weeks, has turned the graded fields into what is starting to resemble baseball fields. This week, Deering workers began to erect the backstops. Soon, the dugouts will be installed, with sod to follow soon thereafter.

 The former Amaral property extends in a triangular shape in a northerly direction from Dickinson Park to the point where Elm Drive and Deep Brook Road intersect at the Village Cemetery. The lot lies just north of the Dickinson Park tennis courts.