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01/24/2017 12:30 PMWhether the town should rebuild the Fiske Lane tennis courts or re-purpose the site for a public playground or a dog park was first discussed at a Nov. 21 public meeting. Now, with new information about the cost to rebuild the courts for use, the Board of Selectmen has set a new public meeting on the topic for Thursday, Feb. 16 at 6 p.m. at the Mulvey Municipal Center.
At the close of the November meeting, First Selectman Noel Bishop asked Public Works Director John Riggio to get a cost estimate to rebuild the two Fiske Lane tennis courts to make them playable. On Dec. 23, 2016, John Riggio received a written cost estimate from Classic Turf Company of Woodbury that put the project cost at between $140,000 and $150,000.
Riggio at the Nov. 21 meeting had said that if the town decided to convert the tennis court area to a public playground, the cost would not be significant. Because the site across from the southern end of Ted Lane Field is flat, little site work would be required. The existing asphalt would need to be removed and the site graded. A new fence would likely be needed and a new play area surface installed, if it became a playground, but Riggio said the total of these charges would be minimal compared to the cost to rebuild the site with two new tennis courts.
The town has already purchased a new playscape with funding from the Westbrook Foundation. The new playscape’s footprint, however, is too large for it to be safely installed in the existing firehouse playground. As a result, the new playscape is currently in storage at the Town Garage, awaiting a decision from town leaders about where to put it.
Were the town to install the new playscape at the Fiske Lane site, across from the southern end of Ted Lane Field, the town would likely relocate the existing firehouse play equipment to the new site.
If the existing playground equipment were relocated from the fenced firehouse playground to the Fiske Lane site, it raises questions about the future use of that fenced area by the firehouse. Some residents have suggested that as a good location for a dog park. Others are less supportive of that use in that location.
As Cathy Wininger of the fire department explained at the Nov. 21 public meeting, lying beneath the fenced playground area now is the firehouse’s septic leaching field. Wininger said that the current use of the space for a playground is not ideal because it presents a safety issue. Children sometimes dart across the parking lot—and from between cars—to access the playground from Ted Lane Field. This presents a dangerous situation. This risk would be eliminated if the public playground were relocated to the Fiske Lane tennis court area instead. Wininger suggested that putting a dog park in that fenced area instead would be a good alternative.
A possible dog park will not be discussed at the Feb. 16 meeting, according to Bishop; the focus of that meeting will be the future disposition of the Fiske Lane tennis court site and whether the new playscape should be installed there.