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Date: 8/15/2022
LUDLOW – With the town planning to commit significant American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to the renovations of the sports complex behind Ludlow High School, the Ludlow Board of Selectmen met with Mott MacDonald, the firm designing the project, to approve an amendment to the proposal initially offered in 2019.
John Sable, a representative from Mott MacDonald, said one of the first needs identified on the site is replacing the gravel walkway up to the stadium with asphalt so that it is American Disability Act (ADA)-compliant. Some of the minor changes to the site also include installing 20-foot-tall nets along the baseball field to prevent foul balls from hitting spectators and moving the shot put ring to accommodate for a larger track. In the grandstand, Sable said the plan is to add a ramp to make the press box ADA-compliant. At the end of the straightaway on the track the plan is to add a storage shed.
“The track is going to be a more traditional shaped track, right now you have a non-traditional shaped track that was designed to accommodate the field itself. It’s going to be a 400-meter track with eight lanes, it’ll have the two D zones with track activities in either D zone,” he said. “We’re going to have the regulation high school size football and soccer synthetic turf field in the middle.”
The field will also be used for other sports including lacrosse on top of football and soccer.
Sable added that one of the goals of the project is to bring the track events closer together.
“On the southern side of the track we have the two long jump pits so we moved those out field so that they are not in the way of the baseball field, and we are bringing most of the events into the stadium area,” he said.
Sable added that the plan is to also include netting around the field to prevent soccer and lacrosse balls from getting lost in the woods.
While board Vice Chair James Gennette raised concerns about people running around with cleats on the track during soccer and football games, Ludlow High School Athletic Director Tim Brillo said a solution could be laying down turf behind the bench areas on the track during games. Sable said the turf manufacturing company could also provide strips of turf to cover the track.
When board member Manny Silva asked if the baseball field could be moved to a better position, Sable said the cost for such a move would be “way outside the budget.”
Board member Derek DeBarge said he was disappointed that renovations to the baseball field were not included in the project, other than a new double-sided scoreboard.
“The field’s trash, we only have one other diamond that’s that size and this field is terrible. I’d go so far as to say it’s not even playable. If we’re going to do this, let’s do it right the first time,” he said. “I don’t want to go play a baseball game on a field that looks the way that it does when I’m looking out at this pristine everything else.”
DeBarge said he would like to see improvements including redoing the pitcher’s mound, home plate and the mix for the entire field. “You need to make sure it is mathematically correct to play a baseball game and it has to play better,” he said.
Sable said he would get an estimate for the cost of potential baseball field improvements.
John Woojack, another representative from Mott MacDonald detailed some of the additions to the permitting process for the project, including a small survey of the wetlands.
“One of the key items is the wetlands delineation, because it was done three years ago, we don’t have to go out there and do a full-blown re-delineation, we just have to validate the location of the wetlands,” he said.
Woojack also detailed the timeline for the project.
“With notice to proceed on or about early September, we laid out the schedule with permitting taking us through February of next year. When the permitting is done, we would finalize the documents, go out to bid April to May, award in June with construction six months July through December of next year,” he said.
The amendment to the proposal includes the additional design and permitting scope items on top of the original proposal, bid phase services and construction administration. The cost of this work will be $68,500 but does not include permit fees.
The board unanimously approved the proposal from Mott and MacDonald for the work on the high school sports complex.
During the meeting, the board also interviewed two candidates for a police officer vacancy before offering the job to Timothy Goodchild and naming Austin Blair an alternate.
The Ludlow Board of Selectmen next meets on Aug. 23.