After taking one year off of the maintenance amid the pandemic, town officials are again planning for sod and clay work at New Canaan’s heavily used softball and baseball fields.
The Board of Selectmen at its Oct. 19 meeting approved an approximately $70,000 contract with Bridgeport-based Athletic Field Services to prepare fields at Waveny and Mead Parks, among other locations.
“This work includes all the baseball fields, including the little cutouts at South School, which the baseball uses,” John Howe, parks superintendent in the Department of Public Works, told the selectmen at the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.
“We actually skipped last year,” he said. “With the pandemic, we didn’t have much play on the fields so we were able to sweep by. So it was two years ago that we did work similar to this. Fortunately, we were able to do work on all the fields this year. Quite often we pick and choose which ones we have to do the most work on.”
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of the $62,920 contract.
It will cover “all the fields at Waveny—the two girls’ softball, the two men’s fields, Coppo Field—Conner and Saxe and then at Mead the big field,” Howe said.
“There isn’t any work we need to do now at Mellick and Gamble, since it’s mainly clay work and the sod right around the edges,” he saId.
Moynihan asked whether the town normally does the work every year.
Howe responded, “We normally do some work every year. Not to this extent.”