Smithfield Town Planner to Present New Plan for Deerfield Park Field Tuesday

Town Planner Michael Phillips is working on a pared-down version of a $350,000 plan to add multi-purpose playing space to Deerfield Park, using DPW labor and discarding an access road to bring it within the $250,000 grant awarded by the RIDEM.

"I think we can get it down to the $250,000," Phillips said Tuesday afternoon, "I'm hoping less."

Phillips applied for the grant as part of an ongoing effort to add amenities to Deerfield Park, he said. Two areas of the park were considered, he said: Behind the youth memorial and south-west of the senior center.

During the March 5 Town Council meeting, Councilors and Phillips realized the proposed project drawn up by a landscape architect would require the town to come up with another $100,000, said Council member Suzy Alba. 

Members briefly considered passing on the grant, but Alba said the town isn't bound to spend the DEM grant by a deadline, so they can afford to wait to raise the full amount or even do the project in stages. "We're not quite sure how we're going to proceed," Alba said.

Phillips said the Council asked him to look at both areas of the park to see which one offered more parking space. That turned out to be the one near the youth memorial, and Phillips said re-orienting the field will maximize the parking.

Phillips said a few changes to the plan for the new playing space can bring the costs down:

First, the access road proposed for the space can be cut out of the design, replaced by a path to the field from the parking. That will eliminate the cost of paving, as well as the need to mitigate a new road for stormwater runoff. 

Also, Phillips said, DPW Director Seth Lemoine said his crews can do some of the initial grading and landscaping. "We can do a lot of the stuff in-house," Phillips said.

Phillips will present the new plan during Tuesday night's Town Council meeting.

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