60/90 Field Restoration on the Agenda for Town Meeting!

Dear Scituate Little League Member,

I wanted to call your attention to an item on the agenda for the upcoming Special Town Meeting next Tuesday, October 26th at 7pm in the SHS gymnasium. As you may be aware, Scituate Little League has applied for CPC funding to help re-establish the Junior Varsity baseball field that was lost in the construction of the High School turf fields. This application has received CPC approval, as well as Select Board and Advisory Board support, and now it must go to the voters at Town Meeting.

Since the elimination of the previous JV baseball field, Scituate baseball has been reduced to a single full-size (“60/90”) field for all games and practices for teams of players ages 13 and older, which comprises at least 150 youth and adult ballplayers including our own Little League Juniors and Seniors divisions. To illustrate the difficulties as they pertain to Scituate Little League, as parents of children in that SLL age group are acutely aware, a Spring Juniors season that usually consists of at least 12 regular season games plus playoffs and regular practice time was reduced this past year to merely 7 games, a practice every other week, and only one guaranteed playoff game due to field scheduling limitations. This reduction in field time puts our youth athletes at a significant competitive disadvantage when it comes time for Summer Travel ball, and deprives all of much needed skill development and character-building experience.

We have been in close communication with SHS Baseball, the Recreation Commission, and of course the CPC on this issue, but have taken the lead on the application for CPC funding to help expedite the project to restore a second full-size field in town and alleviate the many scheduling challenges the loss of this field has created.

We simply want to clarify that at this point, after much discussion with CPC members, SHS Baseball, the Recreation Department and Recreation Commission, and other youth sports groups in town, the application that is part of the CPC article on the warrant for next week’s town meeting does not presume any specific location for such a field. This application is strictly for funding to conduct a study to choose the most appropriate site and produce an eventual design for the field, taking into account the concerns of all interested parties including Scituate youth sports who might be impacted, Senior Center users, abutters, and other town residents. Contingent on successful execution of the study and design, we will seek additional funding for the actual construction of the field at a later date.

We hope you will come out to Special Town Meeting and support us in our efforts to move this project along for the benefit of the entire Scituate Baseball Community.

Kind Regards,

Darryn Campbell

President, Scituate Little League