Draft Field Plan Well-received

ORLEANS – The town’s recreation department has made strides in expanding programming in recent years. But recreation facilities, particularly those along Eldredge Park Way, haven’t kept pace.

 Plans for a renovated field space could change that, and town officials last week said they’d like to move on the project sooner rather than later. 

The select board held a joint meeting with the town’s recreation advisory committee on July 30, where a draft plan to bring new amenities to the area was unveiled. The plan was funded through a portion ($75,000) of $850,000 in funding authorized at the special town meeting in October 2023 (an additional $100,000 was authorized at the same meeting for pickleball court restriping). 

The draft shows a new 35-by-50-foot half-basketball court with tiered bleacher seating at the far end of the field near the Eldredge Park baseball diamond, six new pickleball courts and a new playground with a track for children’s bicycles. At the opposite end of the park fronting Eldredge Park Way there are two new tennis courts, a small handball court and a full 50-by-80-foot basketball court. The draft also includes four accessible parking spaces, an accessible trail system connecting the park components, water bottle stations and areas for three shaded structures. 

 A working group including advisory committee chair Jamie Balliett and member Tracy Murphy and Tom DeSiervo, the town’s director of recreation, culture and community events, has since been working with staff from the engineering firm Weston and Sampson and the environmental consulting firm EDR on the draft.

 The end result, said recreation chair Jamie Balliett, would be a facility that will be a benefit to people of all ages.

 “The reality is Eldredge Park isn’t just a sports facility, it’s a community facility,” he said.

 “It seems crazy because it really just is a playground and a park, but it does make a big statement about how we’re changing and evolving,” Town Manager Kim Newman said.

 Griffin Ryder of EDR said that a combination of methods could be used to help manage stormwater runoff at the revitalized park, from stone and vegetated swales to trench drains and catch basins.

 The project also would include lighting for the basketball courts, something that Erica O’Reilly of the recreation committee said is a “game changer,” especially during the dark winter months.

 “Dead of winter, as long as there’s no snow, there will be people on the courts,” she said.

 The estimated cost of the project is $5.4 million, and DeSiervo noted that the figure does not include the $950,000 that was approved in 2023.

 Andrea Reed of the select board said that efforts to study and improve the recreation area date back about a decade.

 “This is long overdue,” she said. “Thank you. This looks wonderful to me.”

 For select board member Mefford Runyon, follow-through on the field plan would complement the work that has already been done to bolster recreation staffing and programming in recent years.

 “It’s the infrastructure’s turn now,” he said, calling the existing facilities on the site “an embarrassment.”

 The project as presented also has the support of administrators at neighboring Nauset Regional Middle School. Brett Costello, one of the school’s assistant superintendents, voiced support for the project on behalf of Principal Peter Cohen and stressed that student and staff safety should be kept in mind as plans proceed.

 But not everyone in attendance at last week’s joint meeting was impressed with the plan. Orleans resident Stephen Cass, a career athletic director with experience in designing recreation-specific facilities projects, challenged both the estimated cost and the need for some of the facilities in the draft. Specifically, he said the two new tennis courts are redundant and that eliminating them could cut the project cost almost in half.

 Cass said that tennis has flagged in popularity over the years, adding that the town could save money by instead opening up three resurfaced tennis courts at Orleans Elementary School to broader public use. Currently, the courts cannot be used by the public when school is in session.

 “We need to be clear about that,” DeSiervo said. “They cannot be utilized Monday through Friday, September to June, from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. That’s a big chunk where we’re not allowed to utilize that.”

 Cass also questioned Weston and Sampson’s credentials for preparing the field plan.

 “They’re not recreation and athletic people,” he said. “They’re engineers.”

 Regan Andreola, senior project manager for Weston and Sampson, said that the bulk of the project cost lies not in the proposed tennis courts but rather the accessible pathways connecting the various elements. She said the courts could be repurposed as pickleball courts if needed down the road.

 Select board chair Kevin Galligan, meanwhile, said it is too soon to put any real weight into the $5.4 million estimate.

 “It’s a very rough number with a very large amount of contingency,” he said.

 Michael Herman of the select board suggested that solar canopies could be used as cover for the shaded areas. He also pointed out the need to address the existing bandstand and bathrooms, as well as the issue of noise that follows many projects involving pickleball court construction.

 “The challenges to communities in [designing] pickleball courts is sound, that ‘whack, whack, whack,’ and it’s right next to toddlers and infants,” he said, pointing to the courts’ proposed location next to the new playground.

 The conversation then turned toward a potential timeline for making the plan a reality. Andreola estimated construction to take about eight months, but officials have yet to work out the specifics of how to fund the project.

 “If your goal is sooner rather than later, we need to explore funding options right now,” Newman told the board. She said that phased construction might be possible, and that the earliest she could envision the project being completed is May 2027.

 In a follow up email, Balliett said that the committee is grateful of the support from the town manager and the select board, whom he said will help the committee “craft a timeline moving forward.”

 A final report is expected to be ready in time for the committee to go before the community preservation committee in September. Galligan asked that the recreation committee come back before the board with a project update following the presentation to the CPC.