Another Chapter in the Odyssey of Sandwich High School’s New Sports Field
It hasn’t come easy for the new sports complex at Sandwich High School. That was made all the more clear in an only-in-Massachusetts type of story that developed on the Cape this week.
The Gerald F. DeConto Veterans Memorial Stadium is named for an SHS grad and former Navy captain who was killed on Sept. 11, 2001. Earlier this year at town meeting, residents approved of using $1.3 million in community preservation funds to go toward new bleachers, a press box, and new lights.
Separately at town meeting, approval was given for a $500,000 new turf for the field. But the question of whether to raise property taxes one time to fund the new field also had to pass at the ballot box in an election a couple of days later. It failed to do so, with 56.5 percent of voters opting not to fund the field.
However, in June, Senate President Therese Murray tucked that $500,000 for the new turf into the state budget as an earmark. The initiative made it through to the final budget, and the state was set to fund the field.
So the town—whose voters had rejected the field, or at least the funding mechanism for it—was getting the field anyway, and the Sandwich Stadium Committee got to work on making it happen. The new grounds held their first game in October. The committee is still waiting on the bill, which was expected to be paid for with the state’s grant.
And the issue was put to bed, right? Not quite. As you may have heard, the state is coming up short on the budget, and cuts are coming.
One of those cuts? You guessed it: the $500,000 for the turf field, the same field that has already been laid down and for which Sandwich is expecting the bill, the town was told last week.
David DeConto, the brother of the stadium’s namesake who is on the committee to build it, told Boston.com Tuesday that he was “just absolutely sick’’ over the funding cut. Town selectmen were scheduled to meet Thursday to try and figure out just what they could do about the mess. That may have entailed finding a temporary way to pay the bill while hoping elected officials would make up for it by finding field money in the upcoming legislative session.
But, after a couple of news reports on the issue were published, it looks like the latest hurdle has been cleared and the funding is coming back.
“Certainly no one intends for a tribute to the service of Captain DeConto to go unfinished,’’ Alex Zaroulis, a spokesperson for the governor’s office of administration and finance, told Boston.com Wednesday evening. “The administration will look to see whether we can complete the project out of the capital budget.’’
The Sandwich Enterprise reports that Murray, the outgoing Senate president who represents the town, is saying more definitively that the state money has been restored.
For now, at least.
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