WESTBROOK – For more than two decades, Westbrook’s Frazier Field has been a popular spot for local recreation, and thanks to an expected $125,000 in bond money, the aging property is getting some much-needed and long overdue maintenance.
“It needs some attention,” said Maria Dorn, the city’s director of community services.
City Administrator Jerre Bryant said the City Council recently approved in a first reading a $1 million capital improvement bond. The bond, Bryant said, includes $125,000 for repairs to the area off Main Street behind the former Warren Memorial Library building, which includes a ball field, two basketball courts and the Warren pool.
Bryant said the repairs don’t make up the largest piece of the bond, but, he said this week, the repairs are arguably the most urgent.
“The conditions of the facility, the pool, the ball field, and the basketball court are all in serious need of repairs,” he said.
City Engineer Eric Dudley said much of the planned work would be electrical and mechanical in nature. Many of the outdoor light fixtures, he said, are so old that “we can’t even replace the bulbs in them.”
In a tour of the property this week, Dudley pointed out the control boxes that run the lights, which are located in boxes on the outside of the pool’s pump building. Vandals, he said, have broken into the boxes, making the system unsafe.
“For safety purposes, we’ve shut that down,” he said.
Most likely, the repairs will include new boxes located inside the pump building, Dudley said. In addition to the electrical work, Dudley said, some of the aging basketball backstops, which are cracked and stained, will be replaced. The pool itself, he said, will also get a new filter pump.
Bryant said he expects the council to take a second reading on the bond and act on it at their next meeting, which is scheduled for Monday. If the council approves the bond, Bryant said, the city won’t begin making payments until the first quarter of 2012, but the work would begin as early as October. Without it, Bryant said, there’s a good chance the pool would not reopen next year, and the field would not be available for night games.
City officials said this week that the area has been in use longer than they can remember. Dorn said the field itself has been home to summer softball league games five nights a week, from May through August. Last fall, the field was also home to Westbrook Youth Soccer games, she said, and the basketball courts have been used by corporate adult basketball leagues in years past.
“When I was a kid, my dad used to play men’s league baseball (at the field),” said Cynthia Wescott, 21, supervisor of the city’s third- and fourth-grade summer camp.
Dorn said the fields take in plenty of money for basic operating costs. Softball teams, she said, pay $1,000 each per season to play there.
“Frazier Field, when it’s up and going, pays for itself,” she said.
The pool, while not a large revenue generator, gets just as much use. Dorn said the 25-year-old pool is open from June to mid-September, seven days a week, for nearly 10 hours a day.
Dorn said the multiple uses in the area means the repairs would go a long way.
“It’s a really great project to do, because it benefits everybody,” she said.
An electrical box near the basketball courts behind the Warren
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