June 18, 2012
REPAIRS TO NEW HAVEN'S BOWEN FIELD BACK ON TRACK
By Alexandra Sanders, New Haven Register
NEW HAVEN — Repairs to the dilapidated Bowen Field were chopped from the city budget, but thanks to state legislators who allocated $11.6 million for the renovation last week, the project again is in front of city officials and is on the fast-track to completion.
The Bowen Field project was initially included in the city budget as a caveat of the Hyde School building project, but as the budget was whittled down through community input and Finance Committee meetings, $1 million was left for planning and design for the project and finally, the project was cut altogether. The Hyde School project also was cut from the budget.
The night of the Board of Aldermen’s budget vote, Alderwoman Claudette Robinson-Thorpe, D-28, declared she would find funding to help repair the field. She and several other aldermen had been talking to the co-chairwomen of the Appropriations Committee, state Sen. Toni Harp, and Rep. Toni Walker, both D-New Haven, and since January about the importance of the funding. The two ensured the money was part of the implementer bill.
“We don’t have an organized structure for kids to do activities,” Walker said Monday. “There is one facility at (Wilbur Cross High School) that is in much better shape and quality than the one over at Hillhouse.”
Walker added she has seen mixed emotions about renovating Bowen Field, which is reportedly in need of new bleachers, new lights, a new track and a new scoreboard. She said some people are concerned the city doesn’t have the money.
“But the other question is, what are we investing the money in, in the city? Are we using it for situations that are going to relieve some pressure of the lack of activity we have?” she asked.
According to Mayor John DeStefano Jr., the $11.6 million won’t all come from the state. There is an approximate reimbursement rate of 69 percent so about $3.6 million will have to come from the city.
“They short-circuited the process,” the mayor said Monday of the legislature’s move last week. Normally, state approval does not come before city approval.
The state also allocated $600,000 for lights, but the city would have to pay about $150,000 of that. The lights will allow for more use of the track and field, and city youth will be able to play night games. The rest of the repairs will allow for more comfortable athletic events.
“When two teams play we usually sit on opposite sides, but last year at the Hillhouse and Wilbur Cross game we all had to sit on one side because one side of the bleachers was broken,” said Robinson-Thorpe, who added she is elated the Bowen Field revamp is finally coming to fruition.
Thorpe said officials are getting ready to put together a committee to figure out exactly what they want the new Bowen Field to look like. Locker rooms, bathrooms, the entrance area, landscape design, the storage/ ticket booth building and the concessions area will all be reviewed, according to school Chief Operating Officer Will Clark. The matter still has to go through the Board of Education, the Board of Aldermen and School Construction Committee.
“We’re looking to see if we can do anything for this fall,” said DeStefano. “But hopefully by Thanksgiving Day 2013 we’ll have a new field.