Resurfacing the Lincoln Avenue tennis courts made the cut. As did dugout covers for the baseball field at Chianese. 

In fact, the Barrington Park and Recreation Commission has recommended six projects be included in the town’s proposed budget for 2023. Commission members voted in December on the list of recreation projects, which, if later approved, would total close to $200,000.

Mike Seward, the chairman of the Commission, said the upgrades are separate from the recreation projects already to win funding through the town’s use of the American Rescue Plan Act. 

Seward said the Commission had prioritized some of the projects they recommended for the municipal budget. 

“The number one thing we’d like to see done is resurfacing the Lincoln Avenue tennis courts,” Seward said. “That’s our number one.”

The project had been identified last year and nearly won approval for ARPA funds. Seward said officials from the municipal government and school department had been working out a plan for funding the work, but have so far have been unable to iron out the details. 

Seward said the tennis court resurfacing project carries an estimated cost of $60,000. That is much less than the original estimate, which hovered around $500,000. The difference is the proposed amount of work — instead of resurfacing the entire area, officials are now considering fixing the cracks in the court and re-setting the net-posts. 

The new surface is not the only project included that focuses on the tennis courts — the Commission also recommended the budget include money for a new shade structure at the courts, which are located across from Barrington High School. The shade structure is expected to cost $43,300. 

The Commission also included some recreation projects for the middle school property — $27,000 for dugout covers at the baseball field, and $47,000 for a new pavilion at the middle school athletic fields. 

Seward said Commission members had pressed school officials for additional recreation upgrades during the planning phase of the middle school construction project, but were unable to secure a commitment to the work.

The Commission also recommended new dugout covers for the baseball fields at Chianese Park at a cost of $14,000, as well as general upgrades to the Woods Pond park, located near the Peck Center Building. 

“The fence is falling down,” Seward said, adding that the picnic benches are a bit run-down also. 

The Commission chairman said it was difficult to say how many of the projects would make the final cut and be included in the approved budget later this year. 

ARPA-funded work

Barrington officials have spent months deciding how to spend the town’s allotment of ARPA funding. 

Some of the federal money went to cybersecurity upgrades for the town, radios for the fire department, erosion control measures at Latham Park, seawall repairs, and electrifying the town’s fleet of vehicles.

Members of the Barrington Town Council also approved the expenditure of $1 million in ARPA funds for Haines Park improvements. The plan calls for the construction of a multi-use field near the western end of the park (closer to Metropolitan Park Drive), a slight relocation of the Harrington Field baseball diamond, and some improvements to the softball field, among other work. 

Seward said he expected the town’s hired landscape architect to share the most recent iteration of the plan with members of the Park and Recreation Commission soon. 

The Commission also received approval for funding some other recreation projects: resurfacing the ice rink at Legion Way; resurfacing the tennis courts at Kent Street; and construction of permanent pickle ball courts at Chianese. Seward said officials are still working on which portion of the paved surface to build the pickle ball courts. 

“One of the things we wanted was a shade structure at the beach,” Seward added. 

The Commission has found a vendor that can install a cloth shade in front of the bath house at Barrington Beach. The fabric would measure 32 feet by 16 feet and be suspended from posts. 

“That actually went out to bid last week,” Seward said. “We found a vendor that we like.”

Seward said the shade structure would benefit all beach-users, as well as the participants of the town’s summer camp. Funding for the shade structure is not coming from the ARPA funds or the town’s proposed budget — Seward said the town was able to identify available money in the existing budget. 

“Every kind of beach has some sort of shade structure. It just makes sense,” Seward said.