Residents in one Barrington neighborhood are not happy with a new plan aimed at improving the town’s athletic fields. 

A number of people who live near Chianese Park attended the Barrington Town Council meeting on Monday night, Feb. 5, and voiced their opposition to part of a proposal offered by Council member Rob Humm. Specifically, the residents pushed back on the idea of constructing a synthetic turf field on the lower Chianese capped landfill field, which is located east of Prince’s Hill Avenue. 

Sam Read lives next to Chianese Park and during the Council meeting, he was the first to speak out against Humm’s proposal. Read said there are already some problems at the park — trash left behind, vandalism to the snack shack, loitering at night. 

He said it would be better to construct a synthetic turf field at the high school or middle school. Read said those locations already have the existing infrastructure (parking and lighting) to support higher usage fields.

Read finished by saying people understand there is a building momentum to improve the fields in town, but added that disrupting a neighborhood is not the way to go. 

Humm and the rest of the Council members (Carl Kustell, Annelise Conway and Braxton Cloutier) listened to more than an hour of comments from Chianese Park neighbors. The majority of the remarks were opposed to the first part of Humm’s proposal. The Councilor drafted an 18-step plan to improve the athletic fields in town — the steps ranged from the construction of synthetic turf at Chianese to hiring two additional DPW workers who could serve as a dedicated fields crew. 

Near the end of the discussion, Cloutier made a motion to forward some of the steps to the town manager to be considered for inclusion in the upcoming municipal budget. That motion — it did not include the step for the synthetic turf at Chianese — passed by a 4-0 vote. 

A second motion passed 3-1 to have the budget details ironed out for the costs associated with constructing a synthetic turf or hybrid field at a cost of up to $5 million. Conway voted against that motion.

Humm said he plans to make a formal proposal at the March Council meeting, and wants to see the town bring that proposal to a vote at Financial Town Meeting in May. 

Whose park is it?

About a dozen residents who live near Chianese Park spoke during the Council discussion on Monday night. 

Most of them opposed the construction of a synthetic turf field. One woman who lives on South Street said Chianese is a park and not a sports complex, as Humm had earlier stated. 

She said part of the problem in town is an over-eagerness by local sports organizations to monopolize the open spaces in town. She said Barrington should not be a factory for creating Division I college athletes.

Stephen Carr, a Hilltop Avenue resident, spoke about stargazing, kite-flying and running a dog on the fields at Chianese. He said the capped landfill fields, when they were first built, were intended to be for practice space only. That was a message echoed by Matt Fletcher, who lives across the street from the park. 

Carr said the park was surrounded on all sides by residents. He said building synthetic turf fields there would increase traffic to the area, and result in safety issues and noise pollution. 

Leah Gramitt lives on Whipple Avenue. She said that if the Council was going to disqualify putting turf on Victory Field at BHS because there are Canada geese there, as a Council member previously said, then Chianese should also be disqualified because there are geese at that park also. 

Gramitt voiced concerns about breathing in micro plastics should turf be installed. 

Gramitt said Chianese Park belonged to the neighborhood, and added that residents there are willing to share it with the rest of the town. 

That comment, and others, drew a response from TR Rimoshytus later in the meeting. Rimoshytus, a member of the town’s Park and Recreation Commission, told Chianese neighbors that the park was not their green space — “It’s the community’s green space.” 

He said a lot of the people who spoke during the meeting shared a message of “Not in my back yard.”

Gramitt also said she did not believe any of the neighbors who lived close to Chianese supported the plan, but a few minutes later Foote Street resident Chris Coleman shared his support for installing synthetic turf at Chianese. Coleman, who also volunteers with East Bay Lacrosse, thanked Humm for putting in a “tremendous amount of work” on the proposal. Coleman said it was embarrassing that Barrington did not spend more on recreation. He said local youngsters deserve better. 

“I live on the field,” Coleman said. “I love living on the field.”

Some residents, including Fletcher, said the consultant’s report on athletic fields did not select Chianese as the top spot for synthetic turf. A resident who lives on Annie’s Way said he supports the need for more fields, but added that Chianese was not the place to do it. He said he has had to call the police because of parking issues in the area.

Tanya Kubas-Meyer said it felt like Chianese was being re-branded as a sports complex. She said she wants to keep it a park and not a complex — Humm later explained that he did not mean to imply Chianese was a sports complex, but only a park. 

Kubas-Meyer said she would not support the proposal, but would rather support the construction of affordable housing on the Chianese Park property. She concluded by stating that her neighborhood would fight Humm’s proposal. 

Gail Read thanked Humm for his work, but added that the proposal sounded like one person’s vision. She said the proposal did not address the impact to the surrounding neighborhood. Read also wants to see the town add more trees at Chianese and an ADA-approved walking trail. 

Matt Ellis lives on Centennial Avenue. He said he grew up playing soccer on all sorts of playing surfaces (grass, dirt, etc.) and found that it was good for his development, referencing the sub-standard playing surface at Chianese. Ellis invited Humm to sit down with people who live near Chianese and have a deeper discussion. 

Chuck Pointer, a top official with the Barrington Youth Soccer Association, said he was advocating on behalf of the 900 local children who play soccer for BYSA. He thanked Humm for his effort to improve athletic fields in Barrington. He also suggested engaging with residents to find a plan that is most acceptable. 

Joshua Glass said the current Council is making a real effort to solve the fields issue. He also said that he lives near the middle school, the bike path and Bicknell Field and experiences the impacts of those places. He said it is all part of living in a tight-knit New England community. 

Glass said the decision to put synthetic turf at lower Chianese was likely the best investment for the community. He said those fields are underutilized now, and that improving them would be a prudent investment. 

Mike Seward, Chairman of the Barrington Park and Recreation Commission, told people at the Council meeting that a turf field installed at a school property would likely be monopolized by the school teams. Youth teams would not have as much access as synthetic turf fields at Chianese. 

Bram Berkowitz spoke about the shortage of parking spaces at Chianese. He also said there would be a cost to replacing synthetic turf fields periodically. 

The conversation, at times, dipped into other issues at Chianese. Mostly, residents complained about the safety lights on the concession stand near the baseball field. Some also said the “trash-in, trash-out” policy is not working. 

Humm addressed many of the neighbors’ comments. The Councilor said he used to lived near Chianese Park and that one of the reasons his family moved there was to be closer to the park. 

Humm said he wants to improve the parking issues at Chianese, and did not understand why residents felt their access to the park would be impacted by a synthetic turf field. Humm said the proposal was simply to replace the grass surface with a synthetic surface. He said everyone would have access to the new surface. 

Council President Carl Kustell agreed that Barrington definitely has a need, but feels that hybrid turf — a nylon fiber stitched into the grass — is the better approach. Kustell said he wants to put drainage improvements in at lower Chianese and use hybrid at St. Andrew’s Farm Field. 

Conway said she does not support synthetic turf.