By Sarah Opdahl
With the Rebel turf and track in an increasing state of disrepair, and the light beginning to appear at the end of large school construction projects, the Field Fees Committee met to begin discussing next steps for addressing the primary sporting arena in Town. Chair Mr. Ed Sbordone did not shy away from the elephant in the room, that approximately ten years ago taxpayers were promised they would not need to pay for the maintenance of this space. “Let’s face facts, we are not going to replace the field, the turf field and the track, by collecting money for this, no way, and I don’t care what was said ten, fifteen years ago when we first put in these fields, to say that the townspeople will never have to pay for the replacement of these fields. That’s ridiculous.”
Originally, field fees were the planned method to pay for the field and track repairs, unfortunately, there is not enough being accrued to cover the expenses. In addition, twenty percent of field fee funds were routinely diverted to help cover the track and tennis court expenses over the years. Sbodone proposed, “at some point in time, we’re going to have to put together a field fees schedule that we can relay to the townspeople and say, ‘these fields and the track need to be replaced. And guess what? We don’t have enough money.’ That’s going to be the reality.”
The six-member committee, including Board of Education and Parks & Recreation members, will work closely with New Fairfield Public School administrators to ascertain needs, costs, and determine payment plans. It was noted that the space is technically a shared one between the school and Town, as many community groups use it as well. The purview of the committee includes the maintenance, repairs, and field fee oversight for Rebel Stadium, Rebel Turf, the track, baseball, softball, tennis courts, football, upper multipurpose, lower multipurpose, Lower Rebel and the John John Pendergast turf field.
Athletics Director Mr. Mark Ottusch explained, just for the turf alone, the cost to replace would begin at $670,000, but would increase with additions, such as a good pad, which would bring the cost to $720,000. For both the turf and track, the cost would be upward of $900,000. He said, “One of the vendors actually found an issue with our track not being legal, so, there’s all sorts of different scopes of work to be done.” This is nearly double the amount that the field fees account has available. It was also noted that there may be “unknowns” when the track is dug out.
Buildings & Grounds Director Mr. Phil Ross said, “I would say the need to replace the field is very real. And the longer we go out, the worse the conditions are going to become. And I think we can probably say that about the track as well. The track is really in pretty poor shape as well.” The track is usable, but it is deteriorating. He went as far as saying, “I would imagine that the field could become unplayable in just a few years” but backtracked to point out, “we’ve played on natural grass that was 100 times worse than the conditions on these fields.”
“If we got our ducks in a row early in fall and could be somebody’s first project sometime in June, it could be completed over the summer, which is the ideal time for us,” Ross said. Research will begin on track repair leasing options as well.
A lengthy discussion ensued about how much is being charged for field fees and how they are charged, with a possibly unfair process in place for groups who are reserving one space with a single reservation versus others with multiple locations being in one reservation. Many Town groups use the fields, such as men’s 50 plus soccer, women’s football, Falcons, and more. The fees have not increased for many years. In addition, separating reservations for per field payment will likely increase the fee intake. All agree that they want to be fair and encourage use of the fields and not drive groups away. Also, it was noted that they could require groups to submit their insurance forms, which would serve as a check and balance, given that this is essentially an honor system. Director of Business and Operations Ms. Carrie DePuy will research field fees other local schools charge.
The Field Fees committee will be meeting approximately once per month going forward.