LEWISTON — The City Council postponed a final reading on policy changes that would limit public use of Lewiston’s artificial turf fields after officials said discussions are still ongoing over alternative solutions.
During a first reading in June, officials supported a move to make the fields available to the public by reservation only after Lewiston Athletic Director Jason Fuller outlined continued vandalism there. Three days later, the concession stand at the complex was broken into and vandalized.
Following some debate Tuesday, the council voted 5-2 to table a vote until Sept. 9 in order for more public discussion to take place, meaning the changes will not go into effect until the fall at earliest. Officials said after a well-attended public meeting on the subject last week, ideas such as a volunteer organization and/or a paid staff position to help look after the fields have been discussed.
Some officials supported closing the facilities to the public until a better alternative is agreed upon.
The Franklin Pasture complex, which includes Don Roux Field, Joe Deschenes Baseball Field, and the Franklin track and tennis courts, has artificial turf fields that school officials have said are losing life expectancy, with other costs rising for replacing goals and other items.
Some on Tuesday said the fields are too important to Lewiston children to be simply closed without a more thorough effort to come up with an alternative. Lewiston resident Kevin Boilard told the council Tuesday that there is a network of nonprofits that could form a new community group to address the issues at the fields.
Boilard said he has met with Fuller to discuss the options. He said a coalition could be formed to work with the School Department, Recreation Department and others to keep on top of the issue.
He said community members who came to the meeting last week “genuinely felt the council wanted the community to come together with a solution” and that they don’t want the city to “move forward with knee-jerk reaction.”
In response to some councilors wishing to move ahead with the final reading Tuesday, Boilard said it’s “frustrating when the council asks the community to come together to help with these types of issues, but then pushes a vote as quickly as possible to vote it down without any viable solutions.”
Prior to public comment, Councilor Lee Clement said the fields were originally built to be a sports complex strictly for the schools, and the council should pass the changes until another solution is in place.
He said if the council waits until September to pass something, it won’t go into effect until October.
“The damage being done is happening continually,” he said. “We need to have something concrete.”
Councilor Stephanie Gelinas, who made the original motion to table the vote, said she was impressed with the turnout during the forum last week, and there has been “a lot of solution-focused brainstorming” and work done in the past week toward a more “reasonable” solution.
“We need to come up with more productive solutions so people can continue to use our public facilities, and come together with a better solution than just closing everything down,” Councilor Scott Harriman said.
During public comment, resident Ronnie Paradis said some city parks are underutilized and the cost to taxpayers to replace the fields would be enormous. She said if the city does partner with a volunteer-based group to look after the facilities there should be some sort of contract in place to ensure accountability.
“We cannot have the fields continue to be vandalized, and I understand the pressure on (the athletic director) and taxpayers,” Mayor Carl Sheline said. “But I saw really engaged community members brainstorming and we should give that a chance to work. Those discussions are ongoing and I think they just need a little more time.”
Councilor Linda Scott said she served on the original Building Committee for the field complex and that while the original intent was for the fields to be used by the schools, things have changed since then.
“The difference since then is we’ve had two soccer teams win state championships,” she said, adding that it has encouraged younger kids to play the sport and led to more field use.
She said the council should table the vote and let the “conversations continue.”
Councilors Bob McCarthy and Clement voted against tabling.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
