Renovations to Concord’s public athletic facility are due to encounter financial competition as both the city and the school district are facing a tidal wave of capital project proposals next year.

Concord City Councilors will hear an updated presentation on Memorial Field plans Tuesday night and weigh its importance against other projects in the works.

In the 2026 budget year alone, the City Council is weighing a new police station with a taxpayer bill of more than $40 million and a new clubhouse at the Beaver Meadow Golf Course that could cost between $5 million and $8 million, among other things. Meanwhile, the school district is planning a middle school with a $152 million budget that could be approved next summer.

Both bodies – which agreed to split the cost of designs to renovate the complex in 2023 – will have to decide whether and how the renovation of Memorial Field fits into their priorities. 

Parks and Recreation Director David Gill will present updates in the design process for Concord’s main athletic facility to the City Council Tuesday night, but the real next step for this project is for the City Council and School Board to make a plan for when and whether they want to move ahead. Moving ahead with the final phase of design and securing permitting is a $1.5 million investment and would take about a year. The full project carries a $28.5 million price tag, split into two phases.

At a similar presentation from Gill last month, school board members wondered whether the most essential needs — mainly, drainage — could be resolved without pursuing the full renovation or as an interim measure before undertaking the full project. The answer from Gill and landscape architect Chris Huntress was that they could — but it would still be expensive and work-intensive.

Remaking the track and field, Huntress explained, not only is about getting a spiffy new facility but about rebuilding the drainage infrastructure at the uphill source of flooding for the lower fields. 

“There's a certain amount of water that comes down that hill and lands in the bottom area...With the new track and field, I can store a lot of water under that,” he said. “If I'm not going to do that Phase One, now I have to make the bigger investment down below by lifting those fields and putting more substantial drainage down there.” 

“So there's going to be a cost one way or the other,” he continued. 

Early this year, preliminary designs made their debut, along with a two-phased estimate that came in just under $30 million. That broadly remains the same, though plans have gained more detail. With the school and city budget processes on the horizon in the spring, city leaders from both bodies will have to decide whether they want to give the green light to this long-awaited overhaul of the city’s central sports complex or pause it to allow other projects to proceed. 

As currently designed, the first phase of work would address some of the most persistent present problems: repairing and upgrading the drainage systems to prevent field flooding, adding new parking, traffic circulation and overflows, and increasing accessibility. Phase I would also replace the track and field, upgrading the inner space to a regulation-size, all-purpose field that could be used by any sport and expanding the bleachers to a 2000-seat grandstand. Finally, it includes a field house with storage, bathrooms and concession and adds more game lighting to the space. Phase One carries an estimated $11.7 million price tag. 

Phase two would focus on the fields south of the football-track space, placing a new, regulation-size, all-purpose field at the heart of the complex, replacing the baseball and softball diamonds where they currently are and building 10 new tennis courts and two new basketball courts in the corner where the soccer field currently is. It would include further drainage work and could be broken down into smaller “sub-phases,” but as a whole carries a $13.9 million price tag. 

Winter operations bonuses

City Councilors are also weighing Tuesday whether to spend $400,000 for cash bonuses to winter operations employees with commercial drivers licenses: plow drivers would receive $300 per week and supporting “wingers” would get $150 per week. This is the same rate Council approved last year, though the sum last December came to $385,000. 

Human Resources Director Jennifer Johnston  said last spring that — among other benefits — retention bonuses had decreased the first-year turnover and vacancy rate among commercial drivers with the city. Nevertheless, public works is again heading into this winter with a vacancy burden, with eleven open positions that require a commercial license — four permanent positions and seven for winter operations. 

Last winter, Concord had plowable snowfall on just one day — Nov. 22, 2023. In the last five years, Concord has had plowable snowfall accumulations on just five occasions. 

The Council will meet at 7 p.m. in its chambers at 37 Green Street . 

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com