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Town Campus Baseball Field Debate Continues

Fenway Park’s final details may not have received this much debate. After months of meetings and numerous conversations over the scope and financing for the Town Campus baseball field improvement project, town officials and representatives from different Madison baseball leagues came together at a special Board of Selectmen (BOS) meeting on May 1 to discuss lingering issues and project items that have left the field unavailable for play after the start of the baseball season.

While conversations and construction are ongoing, First Selectman Tom Banisch said teams currently have the ability to use baseball fields at the Country School.

Built in 1998 and used by a variety of baseball teams including Daniel Hand High School, Madison Travel Tigers, Madison American Legion, Babe Ruth, and Walter C. Polson Middle School, the Town Campus baseball field has seen a fair number of seasons. After safety concerns were raised last year, the field was slated for reconstruction in this year’s budget, but while the initial intention for the project may have been clear, priorities and process became muddled.

The project to fix the field was formally approved in last year’s budget under the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) for a total of $150,000 after being initially reduced to $30,000 and then restored to $150,000. The money was targeted for improvements designed to alleviate safety concerns, but Banisch, who formerly chaired the Beach & Recreation Commission and served for 15 years as the president of Madison Little League, determined the field posed no safety issues and directed the funds toward finishing off the field complex. That move raised red flags among members of various Madison baseball leagues and ultimately leading the Board of Finance (BOF) to hold funding on the project until a formal safety assessment was completed.

In January of this year, Banisch presented the BOF with results of the safety inspection, performed by the town’s insurance carrier, CIRMA, supporting his initial claim that the field posed no safety concerns. With a clean inspection bill in hand, the project moved forward with the initial hope of completing construction by April 1. However, by mid-April the field wasn’t completed and the project bill was quickly approaching the $150,000 cap.

Public conversations began over how the project expenses racked up and the need to possibly eliminate some project items to keep everything under budget, but with multiple players invested in the field project, the May 1 meeting was called in an effort to get everyone on the same page.

As of May 1, $147,990 had been spent on the project, with a couple items unpaid, according to Town Engineer Mike Ott. The conversation at the meeting covered what had been paid for but had yet to be completed, project items listed but not yet paid for, project priorities, and the timeline.

Process, Priorities, and Personnel

A number of items still need to be completed to make the field playable. Banisch said the fence for the field is nearly complete and the backstop netting system is scheduled to be installed this week, but the warning track on the field needs to be installed, a recently added drainage system needs to be put in, dugout slabs need to be poured, and a few other small items like putting up the last foul line pole needs to get done.

Members of the town building and grounds crew who have been working on the field attended the meeting to discuss the work and probable timeline. Addressing the crew, Banisch said he knows the team is doing its best to get this done.

“Really we just have to slug at it and when it is done it is done,” he said. “I know you guys will give it your best effort…I thought it would be a good idea for us to come together as a team and talk about this project because it is not just me and it is not just you—it is all of us that need to get this done together.”

Grounds Foreman Doug Minges said his team has been working overtime on this project, but he has a limited number of workers and the team is also responsible for all other town properties and fields, stretching them pretty thin. He said if he puts the team on only this project for two full days a week, cutting out their other work, the team might be able to finish the field in three to four weeks.

“There is a lot of work that needs to be completed on here to make this a safe playable surface,” Minges said.

Building and Grounds crew member Robert Marquis said the team always does its best work, but this is the busiest season.

“We are coming into this late and we have this burden being placed on our shoulders,” he said. “We love the work, but we have 10 guys and we have to take care of the entire town on top of this special project.”

Listening to the grounds crew, Madison Little League member Colin Davies said he was concerned the wrong message was being sent to the grounds crew. He said no one in the baseball community is upset with the quality of their work.

“It has nothing to do with the workers. This is a debate of how the money was issued out and how it was at times retracted and how the money is being spent toward the project,” he said. “When you get it done, it is going to be great. We know that to be true.”

Selectman Scott Murphy said the issue is not with the workers, the issue is with the planning.

“This all should have been planned for, management-wise, and we would have had time in a schedule to complete this project,” he said. “This project is not a surprise. This is a planned for project.”

With comments about planning came issues relating to the scope of the project. Banisch said comments had previously been made saying he had changed the scope of the project, but he referred to an email he received from Madison Baseball President Ken Carone in November 2016 that lists all of the items currently in the works for the field.

“This is the project we have been talking about the whole time,” he said. “What has happened is the numbers have changed as we have gone along…Is this anybody’s fault? I don’t think it is anyone’s fault. I think we are all looking at the same project, but for some reason the numbers are different, so what I am saying is, let’s get it done and we will figure out how to work out the money as we go.”

Regarding who has been in charge of the project, Banisch said the project manager has always been Ott, but as first selectman he has been keeping an eye on the project to try and keep it on budget. Selectman Al Goldberg said from here on out, the board needs to take a step back from the project.

“I think our job is to make sure that the resources of time and money are available and that the scope of the project is clear and then I suggest we get the hell out of the way,” Goldberg said. “I don’t think the five of us, with all due respect, can add anything to getting this done.”

Dugouts and the Infield

Two items that were heavily debated at the meeting were the proposed dugouts and the infield construction. For the dugouts, materials have already been purchased for close to $4,500 and labor has been budgeted for $11,900. However, in referring to previous correspondence with Carone, Banisch said he is under the impression that labor can be donated for the dugouts to cut back on construction costs.

“That is one of the things that I thought was a negotiable item given how close we were to our budget,” he said. “I consider some of those numbers to be in flux right now. For instance, the Boy Scouts built two dugouts there five or six years ago…so we might be able to find another eagle scout who would want to do the project…Before we spend that money we ought to find out if we have alternatives.”

Carone said he has spoken to people who had been interested in donating some labor and will continue to do so, but said the cost of the work has been a deterrent.

“I think they were shocked at the scope of the labor that was required for dugouts of this size and I have not been able to secure free labor for $12,000 worth of work,” he said. “It is something that we are willing to work with the town on offsetting some of those costs.”

The infield was another issue. Costs for infield materials and construction have not been counted into the budget yet and construction on that portion of the project is slated for the fall. Baseball representatives at the meeting raised concerns that by pushing the infield work to the fall, it would never be completed.

“I think the big concern is after this field goes online, in whatever timeframe, that the project will just end at that point and we won’t replace the clay,” said Carone. “Which has a huge impact on the playability of that field, especially in the springtime.”

However, Ott said he made the decision on the infield construction based on best seasons for construction.

“This is the wrong time to be reconstructing any type of athletic field—not in the spring, unless it is going to be offline for the whole season, but that is the position we are in,” he said. “I made the recommendation as the town engineer to not replace the infield material now because timing-wise we just won’t get on the field. That is the only reason we are pushing it.”

What’s Next?

With a couple of items under debate, Selectman Bruce Wilson said everyone involved had gone down the rabbit hole and lost sight of the main goal. He said there will be time to determine how the project got to the point it is at now, but for the moment wants to work on getting a completion date on the books.

“We can take up the housekeeping issues of how we allowed this to happen as a BOS, as a CIP, and a BOF so that this doesn’t happen again and get everybody on the best field that we can get the kids on as fast as we can,” he said.

Now, in speaking to the grounds crew, the project is looking at a completion date sometime in the first week of June.

“Our goal is to get this field done as quickly as possible,” said Banisch. “I think if what we shoot for in the short term is to get the field up and running so that it is safe and playable and then we deal with any of the accouterments later on, we can focus on getting the field done.”