The newly turfed part of Nolan Field, taken from a City of Ansonia Facebook video.
ANSONIA – The Ansonia Board of Aldermen voted July 23 to make a series of changes to its $8 million Nolan Field renovation.
The project, which was initially approved in May, will replace the natural grass across Nolan Field with turf. Turf for the main football field was installed recently, with more to come for the other fields on the property.
The Aldermen voted 9 – 0 to change the plans for the fields on “Side B” – that includes the soccer field and little league field in the top-right part of the image at the bottom of this article. It does not include the main football field (that’s “Side A”).
The Aldermen voted on the following changes for Side B:
Remove the baseball lines on the main, multi-use soccer field
Make the soccer lines white, and the football lines light blue
Remove the color from the end zone, instead just using green turf
Remove the football yard numbers from the multi-use soccer field
Include movable mounds for the little league field.
The project is being done by FieldTurf. FieldTurf’s bid for the project was the highest of ten firms that submitted bids. The deadline for the project’s completion is Aug. 15, according to the city’s bid specifications.
Although the two large fields can be used for both soccer and football, the Aldermen decided that each field should be lined to focus on only one sport.
The field on “Side A” – the main field, where Ansonia High School currently plays its football games and hosts graduations – will continue to focus on football. However, the multi-use field on “Side B” will focus on soccer.
Marini told the Aldermen that it made sense to have a multi-use field mostly dedicated to soccer.
“On all fields you’re ever gonna see, if it’s football and soccer, football is the primary (sport),” Marini said. “We are unique because we have two fields next to each other, and because of that, we actually have a situation where football doesn’t need to be the primary on both.”
Making the soccer lines white (as opposed to blue) will make them easier to see, Marini said. The Aldermen also voted to remove the football yard numbers from that field, in order to make it less busy visually.
Amy Brejwo, a member of the school building commission, said in public session that portable mounds are important for youth baseball.
“A portable mound is absolutely necessary for little league baseball to be able to use that field to its full capacity for games,” Brejwo said.
Her comments were seconded by Anne Lynch, who also spoke and said that the field advisory committee – the board which initially recommended the renovation plan – should have been included in the discussion.
“I think that there’s several different opinions that need to be included in these decisions,” Lynch said.
