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Youth baseball leaders tell council fields are scarce and per-player fee is unfair; groups ask for waivers or credits
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Summary
Leaders of town youth baseball and other sports groups told the council they lack Little League‑compliant diamond fields, that past park projects removed diamonds without replacing them, and that a new $10/$25 per-player participation fee burdens families and organizations that maintain their own fields; they asked for immediate allocation and an exemption or credit for self‑maintaining groups.
At the budget committee meeting on March 23, Chris Grady, president of the Cheshire Youth Baseball and Softball Association, pressed the town to address a severe shortage of Little League–compliant diamond fields and to reconsider a recently implemented per-player participation fee he described as inequitable.
"We are extremely challenged to find field space in town," Grady said. He told the council his organization serves hundreds of players (the association represents more than 583 town players in one league and up to 689 counting other leagues) and said field losses at Bartlett and several elementary schools have eliminated compliant diamonds and left teams without appropriate places to play.
Grady criticized the $10/$25 per-player fee — which youth organizations are required to collect from families — arguing that many Cheshire teams maintain and prepare school fields themselves and receive no dedicated maintenance services in return. "We are in effect subsidizing the town's maintenance obligations to then be asked to pay a participation fee on top of the contribution," he said, and asked the council to "either tie the fee to demonstrable services received or exempt organizations that independently maintain the very fields they use." He also requested a written accounting of what the per-player fee funds and recommended exploring credit or waiver mechanisms for volunteer-run groups.
Council members discussed responsibility for field maintenance: Parks and Recreation staff said public works generally handles grass cutting at elementary schools and Dodd Middle School while the town is responsible for infield/summer maintenance (the high school maintains its own fields). Parks staff acknowledged that the town is currently down several full-size diamond fields compared with previous years and that planning (including school field upgrades and future phases of Bartlett Park) would be needed to recover lost capacity.
Councilors expressed sympathy for youth groups and asked Parks and Rec to provide cost estimates for breakaway bases and to identify where additional fields could be added. The council did not adopt a policy change or vote on exemptions at the March 23 session; the requests were entered into the upcoming budget deliberations for possible action.
