Field fix OK'd but residents remain irked at closure process

Selectmen Chairman Tom Gray said once the liability issue was raised last week, 'We had no choice.'

MILTON - Selectmen on Tuesday put in motion a plan that should allow Nute Middle and High School baseball teams to continue their home game schedule sometime next week, but the rancor among residents over the process by which the town abruptly closed the Town Beach field last week may linger well beyond when play resumes.

About 20 or so residents showed up at yesterday’s hourlong meeting to vent their frustration with the town’s unilateral decision a week ago to close the field due to liability concerns and the disdain shown school officials who were kept out of the loop until just a few hours before a scheduled game the next day.

The acrimony overshadowed efforts by selectmen, especially Selectman Bob Bridges, over the past week to remedy the situation as quickly as possible.

Bridges laid out a plan passed unanimously by the board last night that would increase the height of netting that runs parallel to White Mountain Highway from 30 feet to 64 feet high. The posts will be dug closer to the highway and on higher ground than before, Bridges said. In addition, additional posts and netting will be placed an extra 110 feet down the first base line for added safety. The improvements are expected to decrease the likelihood of foul balls landing on busy White Mountain Highway and causing a hazard to motorists.

“The netting is being made as we speak,” Bridges said, adding that it is expected to be shipped on Sunday from a plant in Washington state and arrive on Monday of next week, which is May 6, the next scheduled home game vs. Epping. It’s doubtful that the netting would be up in time for that game, but SAU 64 Superintendent Jay McIntire said Nute Athletic Director Howie Drolet was working on an alternate site for that contest.

It’s more likely that the netting will be fully installed by Tuesday or Wednesday, which would be in time for their following home game on Friday vs. Sunapee, Bridges said.

The cost of the netting is about $5,000 and the labor to sink the poles about $6,000 for a four-man crew from Three Phase Line Construction of Farmington that will work overtime hours because they’re fitting the job in on short notice after doing a regular week’s work, Bridges said.

Three Phase is donating the use of its equipment, the cable, the hardware, poles and trucks to help.

Bridges also thanked two other Milton residents who worked behind the scenes to make the plan work: Fred Cameron of Cameron’s Garden Supply of Farmington and Dan Macdonald of North Country Communications of Epping who donated the use of his crew and bucket truck to remove the old netting.

 McIntire said on Tuesday it was very gratifying to see so many people and companies coming together to make the best of a bad situation and get the kids playing baseball again as soon as possible.

Still, for residents at yesterday’s meeting, questions linger about selectmen’s actions and the town’s role in what McIntire called last week “a precipitous” decision to abruptly and without notice padlock the field.

“Selectmen are not getting behind the town and the parents and the school,” said Kim Boulanger, a mother from Milton Mills who has children in the Nute athletic programs. “Howie (Drolet) wasn’t told in a timely fashion. Howie should have been told about the meeting.”

Boulanger was referring to last Tuesday’s hastily called meeting during which the decision was made to close the field over liability concerns.

The problem of foul balls splashing onto the highway has been a longstanding concern, residents asserted, so why wait until the middle of a baseball season to take action?

Selectmen Chairman Tom Gray said once the concern had been aired at last Tuesday’s meeting, the town had no choice, but many weren’t buying it.

“The town should be doing something so that this type of thing doesn’t ever happen again,” Boulanger said.

Said another resident, “There’s a whole bunch of people that believe it’s a disaster what’s happened.”