Selectmen agree to field usage fee
By Ken Powers Community Reporter

Southborough - At its Dec. 18 meeting, the Board of Selectmen approved charging sports groups a $30 per hour fee for use of the 9/11 Field. The charge is part of an agreement that has been made by the town with the state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).

The DCR owns the land the 9/11 Field is on and allowed the town to build the field.

To get the DCR to allow the town to charge the usage fee, Southborough had to agree to pay $6,500 annually to the DCR, a fee that the state had been required to make to the DCR in lieu of taxes being paid on the property.

Southborough Recreation Department Chair Jim Hegarty suggested the creation of the fee, which will go toward the $20,000 spent annually to maintain the field, as well as the $6,500 fee. Hegarty said that while organizations do not pay anything currently to use the field, private fields in the area charge sports groups as much as $150 an hour to use their facilities.

Hegarty said the 9/11 Field is used between 1,100 and 1,200 hours a year, a usage that would translate into fees of between $33,000 to $36,000.

"The field has rubber pellets between each blade of grass and those pellets need to be replaced every four or five years," Hegarty told the selectmen.

Selectman Bill Boland would rather see the town taxed for the value of the land rather than re-paying DCR money that the state should be paying the town.

"It sets a bad precedent," Boland said. "What about the trails that go through the DCR land? Could they have to pay in lieu of taxes for that, too? And are they going to transfer those fees to us as well?"

Board Chair Bonnie Phaneuf suggested that measures be taken to ensure that the money goes into and gets taken out of the proper funds or line items.

"A stipulation needs to be inserted to make sure the money that gets paid to the DCR can only come out of the 9/11 Field user fees," Phaneuf said, "not the general fund. And at the same time, at the end of the year, we want to make sure the money doesn't get rolled into the general fund, that it stays separate."