City officials want to see if state money can be used to renovate or rebuild the Kennedy Field House at Nolan Field.
ANSONIA – City and school officials are waiting for the next state legislative session before moving ahead on a $10 million project to improve city fields.
In a Dec. 17 meeting of the “fields subcommittee” – made up of members of the Board of Aldermen and Board of Education – corporation counsel John Marini said there may be state money available next year to reimburse some city expenditures.
The subcommittee took no action, but decided to loop in the school board’s building commission when they next meet.
The proposed improvements would affect four fields in the city: Nolan Field, Abe Stone Park at Colony Pond, Nelligan Field, and the Ansonia Nature Center. Voters approved $10.2 million in borrowing for the improvements in 2023. In October, the Board of Aldermen took a look at what those improvements could look like.
Most of the money to be borrowed – about $9.1 million – would go toward improvements at Nolan Field, including installation of turf, LED lighting and fencing, as well as renovating the Kennedy Field House.
The improvements for the other parks are more modest, focusing mostly on repairing and rehabilitating the fields that are already there.
The plan was to borrow the money for the project in January 2025, city attorney John Marini said in October. However, during the meeting, he said it may be advisable to wait to see what the state legislature passes before doing so.
That’s because it’s possible the state could pass a bill that would allow reimbursement for turfing and field lighting, Marini and Superintendent of Schools Joseph DiBacco said. Those improvements aren’t normally reimbursable by the state.
Marini said if state money becomes available for those parts of the project, it could widen the overall scope.
“One of the elements that was not in the budget at Nolan Field, but very much a recommendation to achieve, was a new field house, and to make accommodations for the girls in that field house. Now that’s a possibility that could be on the table with that reimbursement,” Marini said.
Marini said his information came from state Rep. Vincent Candelora. Candelora, the state Republican Minority Leader, represents the 86th District, which stretches from East Haven to Durham but does not include Ansonia.
Committee members spent most of the meeting strategizing how to ensure they get reimbursement if such a bill were to pass. Since no bill exists yet, there was no clear answer. However, the committee speculated that any reimbursement would only go toward fields used by the schools.
That would include Nolan Field – which represents the bulk of the $10 million improvement project – but it would leave out Nelligan Field and Colony Pond.
Marini told the committee they had two options. They could either transfer the entire project to the board of education – potentially getting more money reimbursed from the state, but with the risk of incurring delays or leaving out some fields – or they could divide authority over different fields between the city and the school board, allowing quicker action for a possibly higher price.
That question will likely be addressed again during the school building commission’s next meeting. That commission meets on an as-needed basis and has no scheduled meetings as of Dec. 18.
New fencing for Nolan Field is planned as part of the fields improvement project.
