Southborough recreation commission advances Fayetteville park concept and seeks CPA aid; 9/11 field backstop to be split with revolving fund

Recreation officials told the Capital Improvement and Planning Committee on Nov. 3 that their 10‑year plan focuses on routine maintenance and a handful of larger amenity projects, including a Fayetteville park conversion and a protective backstop for the heavily used 9/11 field.

Travis Farley, Southborough park and recreation director, said the department is requesting that capital pick up half the $22,260 cost to install a semi‑permanent backstop net at the 9/11 field and that Rec will contribute the other half from the field’s revolving fund. "We could actually contribute half of this project using that revolving fund," Farley said, noting DCR (Department of Conservation and Recreation) has approved installation on the DCR‑leased site.

The Fayetteville proposal would convert a T‑ball field into a multipurpose amenity that includes a spray pad, a fenced dog park, picnic space and a roughly 0.17‑mile walking loop, and would improve ADA access across the parcel. The project cost listed in the Recreation capital spreadsheet is $1,072,000; the department said it intends to pursue Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding but that the final split and available CPA dollars remain uncertain pending Community Preservation Committee review.

Kristen Lovell, chair of the Recreation Commission, described the commission’s multi‑year work to bring fields and playgrounds into a regular maintenance cycle and said the recurring $25,000 annual capital ask has been critical to that effort. "We're on a regular, field resting plan," Lovell said, adding that the maintenance line covers irrigation, fertilization and aeration and allows Recreation and DPW to schedule rests and repairs.

Staff described outreach and prior survey work used to shape the Fayetteville concept. Farley said Recreation and past directors surveyed more than 100 residents during an earlier Lundblad investigation; survey results and references in the town’s Open Space and Recreation Plan flagged both dog‑park and water‑feature interest. Committee members asked Recreation to provide documented survey results and a full cost breakdown for the Fayetteville CPA application.

Recreation staff said they ruled out Lundblad (the former landfill in front of Neary) as a dog‑park site because the post‑use permit and liner documentation required by the Department of Environmental Protection would make a change of use unworkable without extensive testing and costly remediation. "In order to do it, we'd have to bore into it, and we'd have to test it," Farley said, and noted that disturbing the liner could create a much larger, expensive project.

Committee members raised safety and design questions about placing a spray pad adjacent to a dog park. Farley said other communities place water features and dog areas near each other and recommended physical mitigations — relocating the dog‑park gate, visual screening, wind‑screen fence and landscaping — to reduce interactions between dogs and children.

On next steps, Recreation said it will complete and circulate the Fayetteville CPA application materials and provide the committee with the detailed budget breakdown requested. The committee indicated it will review the Recreation submission along with other department capital requests before taking any prioritization votes.

Votes at the meeting were limited to procedural business; no final capital approvals were made for Recreation projects on Nov. 3.