Major Plans Set in Motion to Upgrade D-S Athletic Fields

The D-S Boosters and high school athletic department cleared a major hurdle last night at the D-S Regional School Committee meeting when the committee approved plans to upgrade the school’s athletic fields and move forward with phase one of the project.

Athletic Director Heath Rollins gave a presentation alongside members of Gale Associates - an engineering and planning company that specializes in athletic facilities - to the school committee outlining their plans for improvement.

The major changes would include replacing the current grass turf at Frothingham Field with a synthetic turf, adding two multipurpose fields and adding two tennis courts.

The plan would also call for the tennis courts to be moved to where the current softball field sits, which would help open up space for the additional two fields to be added and allow for improvements to the baseball and softball fields.

As part of the plan the current fields would be upgraded and would have improvements made.

According to the presentation, four of the school’s 10 fields exceed the maximum use criteria.

Currently 82 percent of the student body participates in an athletic activity at the high school making up 43 teams and 27 varsity sports programs.

“With current use – our fields are not rested and are deteriorating. The current situation is not sustainable and is creating increased capital demand,” it said in the report.

After receiving approval from the regional school committee the project will be able to move forward with phase one which would be to re-grade Booster Field 3 and install the synthetic turf onto the main field.

The project, which has four phases, has an estimated price tag of $2,749,880. Funding for the plan will be strictly private and will rely on donations to the D-S Boosters.

The estimated cost for phase one would be $1,098,000.

Rollins said that they will begin fundraising almost immediately and are hoping to have phase one of the project completed by the end of the summer.

“It’s been a lot of years worth of work and to finally get to the point where we can start fundraising and go through is a big step for us," Rollins said in an interview Wednesday. "A lot of people have been involved and a lot more will have to be involved, it’s going to be a true community project so there’s a lot of challenges and a lot of excitement around it.”

Rollins said that the planning for the project began four years ago and that he is glad to see it coming to fruition.

“It’s going to take a lot, but I think it’s doable,” he said.