Emery Field in Kittery getting pickleball, basketball courts. Playground not funded — yet
KITTERY, Maine — The second phase of a years-in-the-making overhaul to Emery Field will begin next week, though a playground is being put on the back burner for the time being.
The rehabilitation of the 5.8-acre Admiralty Village public park, which was the previous location of Kittery’s recreation department building, comes as part of the town’s 2015 athletic fields master plan.
Phase 2 will bring pickleball and basketball courts and the completion of a walking path, adding to the Phase 1 upgrades that include two youth soccer fields and a regulation-size lacrosse field.
Why no playground at Emery Field at this time?
Town Manager Kendra Amaral said the second phase of the Emery Field project, awarded to Georgetown, Massachusetts, company Quirk Construction, is estimated to cost $684,862.
But Amaral told the Town Council on Monday a planned playground is being tabled due to elevated costs.
“I’ve got enough to get the base project done. Those are the courts, the field, the parking lot improvements that we need to do, and prepping for the playground,” Amaral said. “What I don’t have is the playground.”
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A report from Amaral to the Town Council noted, in order to pay for the Emery Field project’s second phase, there are $350,000 in capital funds and $375,000 in grants from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, for a total of $725,000. The second phase of the project, including a playground and benches, was initially expected to cost $600,000.
“We’re above that and we haven’t even gotten in the playground yet,” Amaral said to councilors Monday.
Just over $40,000 would be left to fund a playground, and a cost estimate for the town’s design is $154,000, Amaral wrote in her report.
“I made the decision to award the base contract rather than wait another year to rebid, and risk costs further inflating for the whole scope of the project,” her report reads. “I am relatively confident that we will be able to assemble the final piece of funding needed to finish the playground on schedule with the overall project.”
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The town manager told councilors she believes funding for the playground can be in place in time for it to be installed before the end of the 2023 construction season.
“We’re hoping to piece that all together,” she said.
Amaral told the Portsmouth Herald that funding for the playground could potentially come from savings on other town projects or American Rescue Plan Act funds. Amaral added that the town may inquire whether the Land and Water Conservation Fund would consider a third round of grant funding.
Weston and Sampson, the town’s design consultant, aided a citizens group called the Athletic Field Improvement Committee, which was formed in 2014, in producing the athletic fields master plan. The plan called for $1.2 million in upgrades to Emery Field.
The athletic fields master plan was created by funding raised solely through donations.
Project information: kitteryme.gov/projects/news/emery-field-upgrade
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: KIttery Emery Field: Pickleball, basketball courts but no playground
