Members of the Barrington School Committee and Town Council recently reached an agreement on the details of a plan to build two synthetic turf athletic fields at Barrington Middle School.

During a special joint meeting on Thursday night, Aug. 1, officials from both boards worked through a laundry list of project details, ranging from the size of the new fields to a shared-use agreement. One by one, they found common ground on the different items. 

Eventually, School Committee member Megan Douglas made a motion to enter into a memorandum of agreement with the Town Council on the middle school field project. The motion passed 4-0. A short time later, Barrington Town Council member Rob Humm made a motion to approve the terms of the agreement regarding the middle school project. That motion passed 4-0. 

The next step for the proposed project is voter approval. Barrington residents will have an opportunity to vote on the project at the November election.

Humm said he was very pleased that the Council and School Committee were able to negotiate an agreement. Humm initially proposed the project and has been a driving force behind an effort to improve athletic fields in Barrington.

“This is something that’s incredibly important to me,” Humm said, following Thursday night’s joint meeting. “I grew up in this town. I played sports in this town. Sports defined me in a way. And I’ve used all these fields. And the conditions have always been poor, even when I played on them. And the whole intent of this thing was to improve the fields.

“Now there’s an opportunity for this to go to the voters to make this decision, I’m just really proud and happy about that because I know how much it means for me and how much it means for other people in town who use these fields today and will continue to do so. I think we’re going to be in a better place tomorrow than we have been in the last 40 years.”

Barrington School Committee member TJ Peck played a key role in negotiating the agreement on Thursday night. 

“The BMS field plan is a great example of how increased collaboration between the School Committee and the Town Council can produce great results for Barrington residents,” Peck said. “While this was a joint effort between the School Committee and Town Council, I thank Councilor Humm for his continued partnership and leadership in championing Barrington youth sports.”

Peck was also a driving force in the School Committee’s ongoing effort to make improvements to the Victory Field athletic complex at the high school. The School Committee recently approved a plan to install a new synthetic turf field and a new track oval at the high school. 

Baseball field

Members of the School Committee and Town Council negotiated a handful of items during the Aug. 1 meeting — near the top of the list was how much field space to use for synthetic turf.

The initial plan called for synthetic turf to cover much of the field space at the school, including the baseball field located in the southwest corner of the school’s campus. School Committee members pushed back against that. 

Peck said the town spent money to build that new baseball field (as part of the middle school construction project a few years ago). Barrington School Committee Chairman Patrick McCrann later said that he was not sure turfing the baseball field was something the School Committee would agree to. Douglas then asked Council members if they could move forward with the proposal without a synthetic turf baseball field as part of the project. 

Barrington Town Council President Carl Kustell said not turfing the baseball field was not a deal-breaker. Council members said they were flexible with the space issue. Officials also briefly discussed the possibility of adding lights to the middle school baseball field.

Eventually, officials agreed that the space would cover the approximate area of two athletic fields, although they stopped short of trying to complete a layout of where exactly those fields would go. 

Time and usage

The initial proposal called for the school teams to use the new middle school synthetic turf fields from the end of classes to 5:30 p.m., and then again after 8:30 p.m.

Committee members countered with allowing school teams to have access until 6 p.m. and then town teams could use them after that. Douglas said it was likely that school teams would not be able to get onto the fields until around 4 p.m., which would limit the total amount of time they would be using them, if they had to be off at 5:30 p.m. 

The conversation led School Committee and Town Council members to an understanding that the agreement would provide guidance to the town officials (current and future) as they build schedules for use of the fields, and which teams would have priority usage. 

Peck also reminded everyone that currently, the middle school does not have any sports teams that would need the synthetic turf fields. 

Turf replacement

Humm said the town would be responsible for replacing the synthetic turf field at the end of its useful like. That led officials to discuss how that replacement would be funded. 

Council member Kate Berard said she would like to see future field replacements handled as a capital expenditure, similar to how the town pays for new police, fire and public works department vehicles and equipment. The expenditure would be established as a line item in the annual budget, Berard said.

Kustell supported the proposal, and McCrann added that treating it as a line item would allow voters to weigh in during the budget process if they decided not to fund it. Douglas agreed with that approach. 

Use approval

School Committee members requested the authority to review and potentially approve or reject any groups or individuals who want to use the synthetic turf fields at the middle school. 

At first, officials from the two boards differed on the issue, but eventually they came to agree that the Committee should be provided a list of the groups using the fields, and that town officials would ensure that the groups had proper insurance coverage and completed background checks for volunteers. 

Peck added that, to date, the town has not provided a list to the schools of who is using their fields. 

Revenue

School Committee members relented on an initial request to share revenue raised through use of the new synthetic turf fields. Humm explained that the town collects between $20,000 and $25,000 annually from the per player field use fees from youth sports leagues and that money is used to help with the maintenance of the fields. 

School Committee agreed with letting 100 percent of the revenue go to the municipal government for now. But officials said they wanted to revisit the issue in the future. 

Thrilled

Humm said he was very pleased with the effort given by School Committee and Town Council members during the negotiation. 

“I’m thrilled. I’m really happy we had a collaborative process tonight to come to a reasonable solution that will benefit everybody in the community — all student-athletes, and all recreational users of our athletic fields. Tonight was an important night, and I’m glad with the outcome,” Humm said.  

Humm said that despite some contentious moments during the months-long discussion, he was confident the School Committee and Town Council would find common ground.

“I like to be a positive and optimistic person,” Humm said. “With any process there could be frustrations and things you want to do differently, but I held out hope throughout the whole time and I think that’s why, in those meetings I was encouraging ‘Let’s get to a resolution.’ ‘This is something we can definitely do because of the benefits it will provide.’ I stayed optimistic, and I’m glad how it turned out.”