Nute AD, players: Selectmen 'dropped the ball'

Sagging netting has allowed even more foul balls to go out on Route 125. At right, Selectman Bob Bridges. (Harrison Thorp photos)

MILTON - Baseball coaches, players and parents were taken by surprise on Wednesday as Milton selectmen canceled all high school and middle school games played at the Town Beach field until netting is improved to prevent foul balls from landing on White Mountain Highway where they could prove a hazard to motorists.

For Tyler Bedgood, a Nute High junior and right-fielder for the team, it is a bitter pill.

“I feel disrespected by the town and selectmen,” Bedgood said today. “They don’t’ care about the kids.”

He said the team was told if they tried to practice police would be involved.

Bedgood’s mom, Jennifer Bedgood, said parents and many players on the high School team, some with tears in their eyes, met last night with Selectman Mike Beaulieu trying to find a solution.

“Some of the kids made heartfelt speeches last night,” Jennifer Bedgood said today.

“These kids have worked so hard, had fund-raisers, practiced,” she said. “Now they’re completely disheartened, let down. They way this was done. A huge amount of townspeople are upset.”

Selectmen, Rec Director Karen Brown and others had a special meeting today at Town Hall, Jennifer Bedgood said, but no one else was invited.

Later, her son said officials left the building ignoring players who waited in the parking lot in full athletic uniform.

Selectman Bob Bridges said it was purely a liability issue and that the town is working to fix the problem as soon as possible. He said, however, there is no timetable for its completion.

He said only a handful of residents were at Tuesday’s meeting when selectmen voted to prohibit games at the field until better fencing and netting can be installed.

Bridges said balls going over the netting and into the road has been a problem for many years, but when a town official saw it happening just recently they notified selectmen who decided to act.

He said preliminary plans indicated the fencing must be about 130-feet wide and the net must be extended about 14 feet higher to prevent foul balls from endangering motorists.

The Nute High baseball team has already played two games at its home field this year.

Parents and other town residents flooded social media today  venting their frustration over the decision by selectmen, but Bridges said the town has no choice.

He added that the town does have liability insurance, but that he didn’t want a baseball player to hit a foul ball that causes a fatal accident and have to live with that the rest of their life.

He said he had briefed SAU 64 Superintendent Jay McIntire on the closure, but not Nute AD Howie Drolet, who didn’t learn of the decision until around noon on Wednesday, just four hours before game time.

Drolet fumed on Thursday that selectmen had dropped the ball on this one and had known about the problem for years but had done nothing about it.

“I question the timing of this,” Drolet said today. “This has been on the town radar for a number of years. Two years ago they tried to fix the problem by putting the netting up. They didn’t consult me or the baseball coach where the poles should go.

 “Then we played all last year with that netting and they knew balls were still going in the road. They dropped the ball. Now their solution is close the field.

”Don’t punish the kids because you neglected your duties.”

Drolet said if the field is not fixed quickly he will begin trying to schedule other fields where the team might be able to complete its home schedule.   

Jennifer Bedgood said today’s meeting was to have included Drolet and perhaps Milton High baseball coach Paul Chiasson, but that invite was rescinded last night.

The next home game for Nute varsity baseball is May 6.

Town Administrator Elizabeth Dionne said the town is working very hard trying to come up with an option and a solution.

Bridges added that the town will hopefully be able to “fix this as quickly as we can.”

It all makes little sense to right-fielder Tyler Bedgood, who said, “Balls go out of the park at every baseball field. It happens everywhere.”