Info box:

Black Point Park: $400,000 in the budget.

Pine Point Pier: $900,000 – $400,000 to be paid by the town.

High school turf field: $388,000

Track resurfacing: $144,000

Total of track and turf: $532,000

Two recent projects, the high school turf field and Black Point Community Park, have some residents frustrated with how the town of Scarborough decides which projects go to referendum and which ones are approved by the town council.

The track resurfacing and installation of the artificial turf at the high school were two separate projects, each costing less than the $400,000 limit requiring a project to go to voters. Both projects, completed at the same time by Sports Turf International, cost a total of about $532,000. Had they been grouped as one project, the cost would have required that it go to a community-wide vote. And that is at the center of what some residents are questioning – whether the town is deliberately bypassing such referendums by breaking up project costs to total less than $400,000.

Lorraine LaChapelle, an abutter to the Black Point park, said that while she is fine with the park, she is not happy about breaking large projects into $400,000-or-less phases.

“Personally, I think we should know the total cost of the project up front. Is this park going to cost a million? And if so, is it worth that?” asked LaChapelle. “I think it brought up a lot that people weren’t aware of until now, which is a good thing. Maybe people will take a bigger role in their government.”

The turf field and the park are not the only projects that are proposed without having to go to a town vote. The Pine Point Pier improvements have $400,000 earmarked in this year’s budget, though the project will cost about $900,000. Past town projects, including Memorial Park, have been built in phases, said Councilor Shawn Babine.

Black Point Community Park, located off Black Point Road, is back in the planning process after residents in the area objected to the town’s failure to give them sufficient advance notice, and to the proposed scale of the project, which originally included lights and two multi-use fields. During a series of community meetings to create a new plan, the last on Aug. 27, residents questioned how the park was going to be financed.

This year the town allocated $400,000 for the park, and then plans additional, less expensive projects.

Babine hopes that the council will hold a meeting to address residents’ concerns brought up at the Aug. 27 session, including questions about the $400,000 phases.

Though he thinks something like the park could go to referendum, using the $400,000 limit makes sense in some cases. While he doesn’t think the policy of using that limit to pay for projects should be completely eliminated, he said that the council should take a closer look at which projects use that method.

“I support that we send it to referendum if the whole thing is more than $400,000,” said Babine. “If I had known what I know now about Black Point Park, I would have sent that to a referendum.”

According to Town Manager Ron Owens, breaking down larger projects like the park will ultimately save the town money. He said $400,000 would build a basic park, including roads, a parking lot and a field. After that, the town can look into other ways to build different parts without using tax money.

Some of those other methods to find money include grants for projects such as the Pine Point Pier, or donations from developers, said Owens. Developers who build in residential areas are required to either donate land, money or labor to offset the impact of the construction in neighborhoods. The land for the park was one of those donations. It might be possible, said Owens, to have a future developer build tennis courts or other features of the park as a way to satisfy that requirement.

In Memorial Park, for example, the gazebo was donated by Risbara Brothers Construction. By going to referendum, said Owens, the town loses the opportunity to partially pay for a park project with something like donations. If a project is done in phases, rather than all at once, the town has a better chance to see donations from developers, he said.

“Every park we have is a combination of funding from the town and developers’ donations,” said Owens. “What people would vote on would be the allocation of a bond,” he added. “Which means you would do it all at one time, when in reality there’s no need to do that. It just depends on priorities. If you wanted to build a park in two years with everything everyone wants, you’d have to go to referendum.”

At Black Point Community Park, said Owens, the initial $400,000 will meet basic needs, enough to help relieve pressure on other fields that are overused by local teams. A reason for doing the turf field at the high school this past summer, said Owens, was also to help with overuse problem. Since the turf can be used more intensely than real grass, more teams can use the high school field, allowing the town more time to build another park. Had the town instead rushed to build four or five smaller, regular fields instead of the turf field and Black Point Community Park, said Owens, it would have cost more than what’s been spent.

Bruce Gullifer, Scarborough’s community services director, said at the Aug. 27 meeting on Black Point Community Park that the project was begun quickly in another effort to save money. By taking the soil excavated from the high school field and adding it to the park field, said Gullifer, the town saved money.

“It kind of was a rush-rush, get it through, build a road and get it done,” said Gullifer.

Originally, the pre-referendum town spending limit was $200,000. Voters raised that to $400,000 last year.

Some residents who live in the area of the park still question whether they should have been allowed to vote on the project soon to be in their neighborhood.

“I think it’s circumventing the spirit of the law,” said resident Tom Deignan, who lives close to the park. “I think when we voted on raising it to $400,000 people thought it was a one-shot deal. Now they seem to be changing what we voted for. That’s not what, we, the taxpayers thought we were voting for.”

Though Deignan said he is now satisfied with how the park is being planned, he still thinks the entire town should have decided on whether the park should be built.

“I don’t think the people of Scarborough would want to see over $400,000 spent that can impact their taxes without a say in it,” he said.

Janet Dardano, a resident near the park, likes the idea that it will be built on a smaller scale and that the town started working with residents to make a new plan. However, said Dardano, she still wonders about how it’s being paid for.

“It’s just scary how they can take a figure like ($400,000) and just make a park,” said Dardano.

Jeff Jones, president of Scarborough Little League, said he is not concerned with how the park and other projects like it are paid for.

“A process is a process,” said Jones. Jones, who attended the park community meeting, hopes the park is built to help find space for Little League teams who have a hard time sharing fields with larger sports.

“Here’s a town of 18,000 and we don’t have any fields dedicated to baseball except Peterson Field,” said Jones.

The crunch Jones feels when trying to schedule 800 Little League players is why projects like the turf field and park are built as soon as possible, said Owens.

“The projects are all projects that are needed in the community,” he said. “The difference is some people don’t want them here. When you have a community with the number of young people we have, and everyone wants to involve their child in sports, this is the best way to meet those needs utilizing the best finances possible.”

The pier, said Babine, is an example of using some town money and finding the rest through grants. Sending everything to referendum, said Babine, isn’t practical.

“People haven’t complained about modular classrooms or town utility trucks,” said Babine. “And we purposefully bring those below $400,000.”

“I think that this is really in the taxpayer’s best interest,” said Owens. “With the cap there’s a limit to what we can do, and it forces us to look at different ways to finance.” He added that all of the projects like the parks, the turf field and the track are intended to create enough space for all families.

“One thing we work on is to provide equal opportunity to everyone, so any kid who wants to play can play,” he said.