Community Preservation Funds approved for recreation upgrades

Apr 25, 2017

A concession stand for Spillane Field, new playground and softball bleachers – all projects that received the blessing of voters at Town Meeting on Monday night.

Voters approved spending $175,000 for the restoration of the Philip E. Lukey Community Park, $55,500 for a new concession stand and $13,177 for bleachers at the Wareham Girls Softball fields at Westfield.

All of the projects will use Community Preservation Act funds, collected from a 3 percent surcharge on property tax. Any Community Preservation Act project must be approved at Town Meeting and must either be used to preserve open space, for historic preservation, for recreation or affordable housing.

Voters backed all of the projects unanimously.

Plans for the playground call for rehabilitating the 4-acre site, which is accessible from Hathaway and Windsor Streets. The current playground equipment is in a state of disrepair and will be removed. In its place, two new play structures will be installed, a basketball court, walking trail and benches. A group of neighborhood volunteers have pledged to keep up the area at no cost to the town.

Town Administrator Derek Sullivan said the concession stand indicates that Wareham supports its athletes. Sullivan also praised the Wareham Girls Softball group organizers for their work.

“What they built is amazing,” said Sullivan.

The teams plays on three ball fields and has 150 girls in grades kindergarten through eighth grade. According to an explanation in the Town Meeting report: “The bleachers will installed around the three fields to allow family and friends to view the games from a comfortable location.”