Laura Glesby photos
A contingent of Wilbur Cross community members, including Board of Ed Student Representative Dave John Cruz-Bustamante, art teacher Melody Gallagher, and soccer captain Matteo Festa.
Laura Glesby photo
A lightly muddy Blake Field on Friday afternoon.
Broken ankles. Used syringes. Mud-induced match cancellations. Low morale.
Those were just a few of the high school sports-related obstacles that Wilbur Cross coaches and students spoke out about having to surmount time and again, as they successfully urged alders to move forward with long-awaited upgrades to the East Rock Athletic Complex.
The Board of Alders City Services and Environmental Policy (CSEP) Committee heard those concerns — and took that vote –Thursday in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.
The aldermanic committee held the meeting in part to consider the city’s plan to use state and federal funding to improve Blake Field, Rice Field, and the Wilbur Cross Athletic Complex in upper East Rock. Committee Chair Anna Festa, whose ward includes the three fields in question, convinced her aldermanic colleagues to not take a vote on the matter Thursday night — meaning that it can be discharged from committee at the next full Board of Alders meeting, thereby fast-tracking a potential final vote by the board.
According City Engineer Giovanni Zinn’s presentation to the aldermanic committee on Thursday, the city is asking the alders for permission to accept $1.1 million from the state Department of Education, $1.5 million approved by the State Bond Commission over the summer, and an anticipated $750,000 from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (which still needs to be approved by Congress.)
The planned renovations will involve upgrading lighting and fencing, building new soccer equipment at Blake Field, and replacing the Wilbur Cross Athletic Fields’ grass with synthetic turf.
“So many of our young people and people of all ages enjoy these fields,” Zinn told the committee alders on Thursday.
Metal and glass at Blake Field.
Alders heard a flood of testimony from Wilbur Cross High School students and staff, who said the fields’ current conditions have led to injuries, called-off games, and embarrassment.
Some Wilbur Cross community members spoke of the fields as hazardous, as a cluster of students and teachers listened and clapped in support.
According to Harold Haughton, a special education teacher and athletic facilitator, the fields are “very embarrassing and dangerous. At Rice Field, we find needles, glass. The surface is uneven. … I’ve seen students get injured just because of the way the fields are.”
Elias Theodore.
Student-athlete Elias Theodore said that when he plays sports on Rice Field, “I check the grass to see what’s there. If I have to dive, I want to make sure I’m not gonna get caught” on something.
History teacher and soccer coach Brian Grindrod said the uneven fields have led to “broken ankles and sprains” among athletes.
Angel Ramos, who coaches baseball at Wilbur Cross, noted a need for bathrooms, or at least a regularly cleaned port-a-potty, where the athletes play. “The kids gotta cross the street to go to the bathroom,” he said. “Cars drive like crazy.”
And the athletic complex’s conditions have led to low morale and school spirit.
Other schools “say it’s the worst athletic complex” in the league, Ramos said, “and maybe the whole state.”
“I see how hard our athletes are working,” said Haughton. “They’re wondering, ‘Do they really care about us?’ ”
The Turf Is Always Greener?
Alder Steve Winter, at the right, asks Giovanni Zinn, at the left, about PFAS chemicals.
One focal point for both the committee and Cross community members Thursday night was the city’s plan to replace the grass at the Wilbur Cross athletic field with synthetic turf.
Prospect Hill/Newhallville Alder Steve Winter asked Zinn about “issues related to health and the environment” associated with turf. He raised concerns about PFAS chemicals that have been found in artificial turf, which he said could expose both the students using the fields and the surrounding East Rock neighbors to toxins.
“We want to make sure we do whatever we can to protect the health of the individuals using the field” when selecting the kind of turf to use, Zinn replied. Athletes who regularly use the fields “were extremely clear that they would be unhappy” if the fields weren’t switched to turf, he added.
Are there storm drainage issues associated with turf fields? asked Winter.
Not in this case, Zinn responded. There would be a layer of stone underneath the turf which “provides a lot of detention and storm drainage,” and the “topography” of the field (including a running track that will surround the proposed turf area) is unlikely to allow water to pool on the turf, Zinn argued.
The students and coaches from Wilbur Cross, meanwhile, issued a resounding call in favor of a turf field.
Soccer team captain Matteo Festa lamented that due to the mud-prone grass field, practices and games are often canceled for days after a rainstorm — an issue that most of the teams that Cross competes with don’t face, since most of the other schools use turf fields.
“Some students rely on sports for scholarships. That’s what gets them into college,” Festa said.
A turf field will enable student athletes to begin practicing earlier in the Spring season, said Coach Ramos, rather than waiting for the grass to thaw.
By the end of the meeting, Winter continued to express reservations about turf. “There is some evidence out there that PFAS chemicals can leach out of turf,” he said. He asked for “more information about the specific turf” that the city plans to install ahead of the full Board of Alders’ next meeting.