Letter: Dover Parks and Rec Responds to Criticism Over Fields Project

The following is a letter to the editor by Dover Parks and Recreation Commission member Rich Oasis in response to a previous letter to the editor

Last week the Dover Patch printed a letter from Barbara Palmer, a neighbor of Caryl Park.  On behalf of the Dover Parks & Recreation Commission, I wanted to respond to her letter as she raises some important issues.

We understand Ms. Palmer’s concern that the cost of maintaining the facilities would fall to the taxpayers a “decade or so down the road.” This is a common concern and we have stated since the beginning of the CPARC project that Dover Parks & Recreation would collect annual field usage fees from the field users and this money would be allocated to carpet replacement. This strategy places no tax burden on the Dover citizens and allows all users of the field to share in the long-term maintenance costs.

We appreciate Ms. Palmer’s interest in the Regional High School and their fields and agree with her assessment that this “is a situation that screams for cooperation and collaboration” which is why we’ve been meeting with the Boosters to understand their needs and see how we may work together. As part of our early due diligence for CPARC, Dover Parks & Recreation evaluated a half dozen possible site locations for its additional fields, including the Boosters Fields at the Regional School (the former Medfield State Hospital fields).

In February 2011, Dover P&R presented to the Dover Sherborn Regional School Committee a five-page proposal for positioning the Dover Parks & Recreation fields on the Boosters Fields. The proposal stipulated that Dover Parks & Recreation would pay the full cost of the fields in exchange for control of the fields on weekends and after 5:00pm on weekdays. The proposal allowed the Region use of the fields every weekday until 5:00pm and any time on any day of the week for any and all post-season tournament games. The minutes from this meeting reflect the School Committee’s rejection of the proposal.

Given the latest 2012 proposal from the Boosters, Parks & Recreation again asked to see if any potential fields might be used by town sports groups in phase 1 of their proposal. The response we received is that we may get access to one field once or twice during the week. We are grateful for any additional field allocation we can get but as you will see from our field over utilization below, one field, once or twice a week will not solve our problem.

Finally, Ms. Palmer asks about a needs analysis to justify additional playing fields. Dover P&R has provided these data in several different formats at numerous public meetings over the past few years. Here is an overview of that analysis with additional discussion on the resulting usage:

We can tell you about our field utilization in 2011. We are responsible for three large fields – two at Chickering and one at Caryl. With our current field use, we are in excess of the recommended field utilization. How far in excess, you may be wondering? The fields at Chickering were used 530 hours each last year. The recommended use is 150 hours per field based on nationally recognized standards. In order to ensure the sustainability of Dover’s playing fields for future enjoyment, we need to cut back on field availability not by a couple of hours a week but by 70%! So, in 2012, we could conceivably cut back every team and every group using the fields by 50%. Would you envision the Dover school population shrinking by 50% by next school year? Now, we have the field utilization down to 265 hours, pretty good, right?  Well, we’re only half way there. So in 2013, a year after reducing field allocation by 50%, we then could reduce field availability by another 40% down to roughly 150 hours. Do you think the school population after being cut in half in 2012 will shrink by another 40% in 2013?

Our need for fields isn’t tied to population growth – it’s tied to actual field utilization. We can look at field utilization from a different perspective. Let’s assume the population goes down by 20% and there is an associated 20% drop in field utilization. The Chickering fields would then be used 424 hours each. If that is the usage for 2012, we would then only need to reduce the clubs’ field utilization by 60% to bring it in line with 150 hours. Of course, this assumption is based on no new sports as well as no growth of existing girls sports – which we’ve seen dramatically increase over the past 5 years.

Dover Parks & Recreation is focused on providing safe fields in good condition for our townspeople to use. As we manage field usage to maintain these standards, there will be a shortage of fields in town for our existing kids programs and we will be restricted from adding any new field-dependent programs for kids or for adults. We continue to explore all possibilities to address this situation. The Parks & Recreation Commission has been meeting every other week to discuss this issue as well as others affecting the Town of Dover. Everyone is certainly welcome to our open meetings.

Rich Oasis on behalf of the Park & Recreation Commission

Editor's note: If you would like to submit a letter in response to this issue or any other issue send submissions to benjamin.paulin@patch.com.