Town officials last week approved the purchase and installation of a storage shed at Mead Park that will serve new partially turfed little league baseball fields.
The Board of Selectmen at its Feb. 26 meeting voted unanimously in favor of the $6,165.40 project, to be paid for New Canaan Baseball, a nonprofit organization that runs youth baseball in town.
The storage shed is to be placed beyond the right-field wall of Mellick Field at Mead Park. Credit: Michael Dinan
The 12-by-18 foot shed will be located at the end of the parking lot that runs along Mellick Field’s right field line, Recreation Director Steve Benko told the selectmen at their meeting, held in Town Hall.
“And they would keep the portable pitching mounds and some of the other equipment,” Benko said. “And we now have turf infields so there is a need for more maintenance on a weekly bases to put down rubber as kids slide and wear it out. So [Parks Superintendent] John [Howe] will keep a supply of the rubber for the infield in there as well.”
The infields of both Mellick and Gamble Fields are now artificial turf, following a New Canaan Baseball-led project that wrapped up in December, Benko said.
The selectmen asked him where exactly the new shed would be located (up against the wood line at the end of the parking lot, out of the way), whether New Canaan Baseball is paying the entire cost (yes), what the shed looks like (neutral gray color garden shed with white double doors on one side and a garage door on the other).
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted in favor of the project.