Belmont Second Soccer Giving Winn Brook Fields a Second Chance

The popular cowboy song (written by Cole Porter!) goes "Don't Fence Me In." 

But over the next year, the playing pitch adjacent to Winn Brook Elementary School will be fenced in as the group that runs the town's popular soccer program for the youngest players will be digging up and seeding the ground.

According to the leaders of Belmont Second Soccer – President Charlie Conroy and Vice President David Hamer – the group will spend a total of up to $250,000 to renovate the fields, laying a new irrigation system and to dig a new well that will help preserve the fields that take a great deal of punishment from two seasons of "football" from approximately 750 children between kindergarten and second grade along with adult coaches and refs marching about.

"This work will go to extend the life of the fields," said Conroy after the meeting.

Conroy (who is a fan of London-based Arsenal) told the Belmont Board of Selectmen Monday, June 17, the project will be done in two segments, with the biggest portion – along Sherman Street from the school to the baseball field – being the first to undergo the renovation.

And it will take some time before the pitch sees a soccer ball being chased by a dozen six-year-olds.

"It's been recommended for us not to use (the field) for the entire season," said Hamer (who supports Ipswich Town), which will mean the ground will be closed in by a six-foot high chain-linked fence from this August until either April or May of next year. 

In the first of two phases, the fields will be renovated - including improving the drainage – and the irrigation system placed into the ground. The second phase will be to level the ground and reseed the fields. Conroy said the work will be aligned with the Joey's Park rebuild.

While the first field is undergoing renovation, two other fields – one adjacent to Cross Street and the tennis courts and the other along abutting backyards of homes on Broad Street and the baseball field – will be used by Second Soccer. Those grounds will then undergo repairs in late spring of next year as the first section is reopened. 

Conroy said nearly the entire project cost will be handled by Second Soccer as they will put in $50,000 into the project with the Belmont Soccer Association adding an equal amount along with grants and gifts.

Belmont Second Soccer will also take about half the project's cost in a loan.

When Broad Street's Siobhan Gallagher voiced concern that the renovations would aggravate the existing flooding issues along her street, Conroy said the engineers employed by Second Soccer to map out the fields said the drainage work will have no impact on surrounding homes.