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07/14/2024 12:46 PMOn July 12, many community players involved in supporting Branford’s town-wide athletic fields/facilities improvement initiative came out to celebrate breaking ground for the first project on the dashboard, the multi-field and recreational facilities to be installed at Walsh Intermediate School (WIS).
Branford First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Chris Tranberg Ph.D., and Parks and Recreation Director Alex Palluzzi Jr. spoke at the event to help mark the start of construction on the $7.65 million project.
The project, which has a targeted completion of June 2025, begins now with excavation work at the site at 185 Damascus Road. Branford-based Giordano Construction Company will undertake the project’s construction to bring in two lighted synthetic multi-sport fields surrounded by a 3-lane track; a lighted softball field; accessible playground, basketball court; and a building with accessible restrooms, storage space, and water bottle filling stations.
On the grounds of the current softball field at WIS, Branford Public Schools (BPS) Facilities Director Brendan Leddy greeted the sizeable crowd attending the July 12 event. Community members, Branford youth league representatives and players joined Branford elected and appointed officials, BPS representatives including WIS principal Raeanne Reynolds, and Giordano Construction company representatives at the outdoor program.
During his comments, Cosgrove walked the audience through a project development timeline which included the WIS school building expansion and renovation project (which broke ground in 2018 and was completed in two phases in 2020 and 2022) to this final piece that will bring in the new fields and facilities for the school and the community.
Cosgrove said the WIS field renovation is an investment in keeping Branford an attractive community; and that the project will improve the quality, accessibility, and availability of fields for Branford’s youth.
“This is truly has been years in the making,” Cosgrove said. “We undertook this project a number of years ago, and what we have before us now with this field improvement project is a completion of this school, of finishing the project and bringing it up to a caliber our community will be proud of that will serve these students and future students.”
Cosgrove commended the Ad hoc Sports Fields Advisory Committee for its contributions to the project as well as past and present Board of Education, Board of Recreation, Board of Finance (BOF) members, and members of Representative Town Meeting (RTM) for their part in the moving the project to this point. He also recognized community member and Branford youth sports leader Jennifer Orlando for her efforts in supporting the project.
Cosgrove also credited Branford Town Finance Director Jim Finch with his continuing work to assist the Town in leveraging funding opportunities which can be applied toward the $7.65 million project appropriation recommended by the BOF and approved by the RTM.
Tranberg, who began his tenure with BPS in July 2023, said he recognized the desire and commitment of the Branford community to support youth development and education through sports and recreational pursuits.
“Exercise, fitness, and recreation are all important elements of a well-rounded education,” Tranberg said. “These new athletic fields will be the perfect compliment to Walsh and will provide high quality athletic and fitness opportunities to our students and the community at large.”
Palluzzi noted the project addresses a long-standing vision for Branford Parks and Recreation spanning 32 years of his career. He thanked Cosgrove and Tranberg for their leadership and collaboration to help deliver the project.
“I am so proud to see the vision we’ve had for increasing athletic and recreational opportunities for the whole Branford community finally coming to fruition,” Palluzzi said. “When completed, people of all ages will be able to utilize these new fields and facilities.”
To emphasize its commitment to environmentally friendly construction practices, Giordano Construction will exclusively use machines which run on R-99 renewable diesel fuel for the project. The repurposed cooking oil and inedible oil, provided by East River Energy, is a sustainable, low-carbon alternative to traditional diesel fuel, said Vincent Giordano III.
“All of the machines on this job will use R-99, so no petroleum is going to burned on this job,” said Giordano. “We’re probably going to burn every bit of 10,000 to 15,000 gallons of fuel, so it really brings the carbon footprint way down.“
Joining officials, representatives and other key players to toss the first shovels of dirt for the project were several young community members representing Branford youth sports teams.
Sophia Falcigno, 14, and Ava Falcigno, 12, both participate with Branford softball. Their dad is Branford youth softball board president and project community proponent David Falcigno, who also joined Cosgrove in commending Orlando for her efforts.
“It means a lot to us,” said Sophia Falcigno. “We’ve had to play on a smaller field that had some pretty terrible conditions. It was so bumpy that we couldn’t field a single ball, or even slide because of how rocky it was. So this change is amazing.”
“It lowers the cost of our team losing or not performing as well as we could due to the field conditions,” said Ava Falcigno, who also plays with WIS softball. “I’m very happy that this will be renovated and better than it was.”
“We needed this so badly,” said Recreation Board Chair Paul Criscuolo. “People understand how valuable it is to not only teams and recreation, but for education. And I think my favorite part of the whole piece is that it’s going to be handicapped accessible, which is so important.”