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[DISCLOSURE: the author of this story has a child who participates in the Sudbury Girls Softball program, and the author has volunteered as a coach on two occasions.]
Phase two of the Feeley Field improvement project has been put on pause by the Sudbury Park and Recreation Department. The first phase of the project has largely been completed according to Park and Recreation Director Dennis Mannone, but the larger second phase will be paused until the completion of a town-wide fields needs assessment.
The first phase included the installation of dugouts, accessible pathways, and a variety of safety features throughout the Feeley Field complex. The second phase would include additional dugouts and pathway work, as well as a significantly larger, and more expensive, drainage and irrigation project on the lower Feeley fields. That portion of the project would address extremely wet conditions at the fields.
Though the second phase of the roughly $800,000 project was approved at Annual Town Meeting in May of 2023 (Article 45), the first phase took longer to complete than expected, and there were delays putting the second phase out to bid. The architect for the first phase conceived of the drainage strategy for the second phase, according to Mannone, but was not interested in pursuing the contract for the second phase of the project.
On October 10, Mannone explained to the Park and Recreation Commission that he felt it was more appropriate, given the delays, to complete the separate fields needs assessment at this point. (53:00)
That assessment, which was passed at Annual Town Meeting in 2022 (Article 51), would quantify current usage and forecasted demand for sports fields, which could in turn inform a different approach for softball fields in Sudbury. Mannone noted that it’s possible that construction of a new softball field in a different location might be a consideration depending on the outcome of the assessment, going on to suggest a $1,000,000 lighted softball field at the Town-owned Broadacres Farm land on Morse Road.
While a longer-term solution could make more financial sense, or prove to be more appealing to user groups, the repairs at Feeley were presented as a critical maintenance and equity issue in 2023:
“These Community Preservation Act funds would be used to complete key repairs to bring all three of the Feeley Fields softball diamonds up to the standards of other Town fields. Sudbury Girls Softball (SGS) feels it is critical to address the swamp-like conditions at the Feeley #1 and #2 softball diamonds. Due to Upper Feeley and parking lot run-off, combined with generally wet conditions in lower Feeley, large parts of the outfield, third base line, and bench area at Feeley #1, and the first base line and bench area at Feeley #2 are unusable for weeks at a time due to swamp-like conditions.”
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The fields needs assessment project is expected to start soon according to Mannone, but the capital planning process for FY26 has already begun, and the deadline for FY26 applications to the Community Preservation Committee for Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding has already passed. Any alternative to phase two of the Feeley project is likely several years out, though Mannone told the Park and Recreation Commission that he would like to use some of the money remaining from Feeley phase one to finish some of the dugouts, bleachers and accessibility items slated for phase two.
It’s also unclear if the Community Preservation Committee would allow the Park and Recreation Department to hold on to such a large sum of money for multiple years, or alter the plan that was presented to Town Meeting. They typically require that CPA funds are reverted back to the Town if a project approved by Town Meeting doesn’t go forward.
With the focus shifting to the fields needs assessment, and amid increasing discourse regarding the future uses of the parcels the Town acquired at Broadacres Farm, it appears the Town is moving back into a conceptual planning phase. The funding for an Open Space and Recreation Plan was also approved at Annual Town Meeting in 2022, but that has been separated from the fields needs assessment project and has not begun. It remains possible that additional recreation projects are pushed off until both of those planning process are completed, though other delayed projects, like repairs at the SMILE playground at Haskell Field, will soon get a jumpstart according to Mannone.
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