To the editor: I am writing this letter to support a synthetic turf field in the town of Barrington. This project should have been done 10 years ago when the idea first came out to the town by residents, but kept getting put off from study after study.

This past year the school committee and town council gave their approval to a group of interested residents to raise the funds in order to get a synthetic field in town.

I applaud Alex Robertson for taking the initiative to develop this project, meeting with town officials, and working with an engineering firm to devise a plan that would benefit many sports programs. In order to do this project correctly the original cost of $800,000 went up to $2.5 million to incorporate many aspects that would benefit so many teams. The project price tag grew to a point where it needs to be a combination of private and public funds and the town should be able to decide if they want to spend the public funds. This needs to be on the agenda for the Financial Town Meeting. Not by amendment but because the town council feels the voters should decide.

Currently, the sports that are played on Victory Field are the very minimum widths that are required for high school sports and there is no safety boundary of 10 yards to protect the children before they hit the track surface.

I understand Dr. Robertson went before the school committee to request a bond for $1.5 million and he would still raise a million. This way the project would be best for all teams that would utilize the area.

I have come to see in the notes that the school committee did not endorse this project. I am disappointed in their decision. It seems that we have money to do other projects again (Maple Avenue). Was this project not done a few years back? Now we are going to redo it again?

The field we are talking about has been used since the 1940s and gets no rest in the fall and spring. A synthetic field would improve playing conditions and also allow public works to improve some of the other natural grass fields to make them safer for interscholastic league play.

As of this point our athletic teams are renting field space at Brown for our outdoor teams so they get some practice time on fields before they go play at other schools because they have turf and are practicing outside.

I think it is time that both the school committee and the town council sit down and get on the same page. Each one says go ask the other — sometimes we feel like a ping pong ball.

Our children get one of the best educations in the state and our sports programs deserve the best too. Please reconsider.

Tom Rimoshytus

Barrington