Westport's Fields on the Farm hits high gear

Four ballfields should be set next year; fund raising push is on

By Bruce Burdett
Posted 12/15/18

Well out of eye and earshot of Route 177, way back in the woods, startling progress is being made on the Fields on the Farm sports field complex.

Well out of eye and earshot of Route 177, way back in the woods, startling progress is being made on the Fields …

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Westport's Fields on the Farm hits high gear

Four ballfields should be set next year; fund raising push is on

Posted

By Bruce Burdett

Well out of eye and earshot of Route 177, way back in the woods, startling progress is being made on the Fields on the Farm sports field complex.

Viewed from the air (it’s the easiest way since the complex is so big), four of six baseball/softball fields show varying shades of green as work continues on adjoining land.

Westport Youth Athletic Association (WYAA) President Ken Sullivan said that the planting of grass early this fall opens “the possibility of some play time in the spring of 2019.” Beyond that, much more is to come.

To varying degrees, work and fund raising have been going on at the Fields on the Farm project since before 2015, but early this year the WYAA decided to hit the throttle.

“Late in the winter of 2018, we were faced with bittersweet news,” Mr. Sullivan said.

“The new school vote passed in town and the middle school would be demolished to pave the way for a new school complex. This would leave the girls softball and field hockey players with no home as of June. At the same time, it became clear to our board that the soccer program would be housed primarily at the fields on Sanford Road. We decided it would make sense to develop the soccer fields in a way that they could be used not only as space for soccer but as a home for the growing girls field hockey program.”

Based on that, “we decided last spring to hurry up development of four out of six ballfields.”

‘Hurrying up’ proved more easily decided than done on such a large property — they hold 80 acres and intend to convert 37 into the sports fields and parking.

First, contractor RAD Sports had more clearing to do — they were about five acres short of the land needed for these fields.

It had been a bad winter, though, with lots of tree damage.

“Wood cutters were overwhelmed with tree cutting work and we had to wait in line,” Mr. Sullivan said.

The hope of planting grass in the spring had to wait until late summer/early fall. Planting grass over the dry, hot summer would have been a waste of seed, time and money.

In the meantime, the contractor has been completing an impressive drainage system. Although some of the 80 acres is wet, the area where fields will go is good and dry but flat —in need of a way to steer the water off quickly.

“The drainage system is ready to go,” Mr. Sullivan said, and has gotten a good test in recent weather. Retention ponds have done their job well — after a good rain, “it looks like you could catch trout in there.”

There had been talk that a link to the nearby high school (they are separated only by woods) would make good sense, but with the high school’s fate now uncertain, that is all on hold.

Depending on what comes of the high school property, it might still happen some day, Mr. Sullivan said.

Also still to come area couple of wells to supply drinking water. To get enough for irrigation would require a bigger investment — it is still on the ‘want’ list.

More money = more fields

Up next is the need for more fund raising to produce more fields and a smooth paved entrance road.

They have room for a good number of additional fields — field hockey, lacrosse and soccer are the likely candidates in an order and arrangement still being determined. Also in the works are a playground and walking track.

The project team needs more money before it can complete the half-mile entry road that comes in from (south) Route 177 (the entrance is next to that fund raising thermometer sign that has stood there for years).

Like most property in the area “we were blessed with plenty of rocks,” Mr. Sullivan said.

That added immensely to the work involved but provided them with a great foundation for the roadway and parking areas. Stone crushers worked non-stop to reduce the rocks, many of them immense, to gravel size. The biggest, some nearly the size of a small car, were merely moved aside and now form a fine wall of sorts around the perimeter.

The road is dry and firm enough now for use when the first fields become playable next year but the intention is to pave it when the bank account allows.

Mr. Sullivan said fund raising results to date have been superb but more money will be needed to complete the facility (we are about $2.1 million into it now). To that end they have set a goal of $10,000 by year’s end and have plans to keep the momentum going into next year.

Especially heartening has been the number of modest gifts, mostly from townspeople.

“These demonstrate the level of community support,” he said, and help attract bigger corporate and foundation grants (Bay Coast Bank is among those to provide major funding).

They will also continue the productive Babe Ruth Challenge fund raising campaign.

How to help

For more on the projects, visit the WYAA website at http://www.westportsports.org

There they have posted a drop box for donations …

https://www.classy.org/give/41944/#!/donation/checkout

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