At the December 2019 Board of Education meeting Kevin Fuselier, a landscape architect with Milone & MacBroom presented three options for Central Middle School fields: engineered natural grass, synthetic turf, and a hybrid of both.
At CMS, after it rains the fields can be closed for days.
CMS principal Tom Healy said the full size baseball field was not used last year by the school’s competitive baseball team that plays against Western and Eastern. “It always had water on it,” he said. “We’re at a disadvantage.”
Shortcomings came up two years ago when the GHS Rugby team sought to use CMS fields for weekday practices. (The arrangement didn’t pan out because by the time the BOE had all the information P&Z had requested about temporary diesel powered lights, the Rugby season had ended).
Milone and MacBroom, based in Cheshire, CT, has worked with Greenwich in the past. They did the turf at Cos Cob Park.
Currently at CMS, in addition to the full size baseball diamond, there is a youth baseball diamond and a multi-purpose field used for school recess and PE classes.
To date Milone & MacBroom have done a topographic survey and a traffic analysis, including crash history around the school, existing traffic volumes and current field activity schedules.
“The adjacent roadway system would be able to accommodate traffic associated with any of the options we present. No mitigation is required.” –Kevin Fuselier, Milone & MacBroom
Nor did they find wetlands, watercourses or other “regulated resources.”
Mr. Fuselier said his firm also looked for history of contamination.
They contacted town land use officials and researched the site’s history including aerial photos dating back to the 1930s.
The best news were the results of soil sample testing.
“The soil at CMS does not contain contaminants. It would be considered clean fill if excavated and removed from the site.” – Kevin Fuselier, Milone & MacBroom
“I want us to celebrate having clean soil, because that’s not something that happens all the time in Greenwich,” said Kathleen Stowe. “Clean soil at Central!”
Mr. Fuselier presented three options at the preliminary design stage.
Read the full article here.
© Greenwich Free Press, 2019