The Concord School Board voted to invite City Councilors to form a working group that would develop an action plan on renovations to Memorial Field.

“Whether or not we end up moving forward with the master plan and the project, we have to take the next steps,” School Board member Cara Meeker said during discussion Monday. “Being able to say we have a partnership and we have a plan gives us an avenue to move forward with whatever comes next.”

The city owns and maintains Memorial Field, but the school district is by far its heaviest user; if they agree to pursue the project, it would be under some kind of cost-sharing arrangement. For the last year — since preliminary plans debuted in February — conversations about the project by the district and the city have largely taken place separately. In a joint group, members from both sides and maybe members of the public would get to work through questions like what would be in a memorandum of understanding for the new complex, how the phasing would unfold and whether it would mean any changes for managing the facility’s costs and revenue.

Both bodies, though, have major slates of capital projects in the pipeline for the next few years. The biggest question before both sides is how much room they have in their budgets for this project and at what time.

A multi-phased revamp of the complex from the underground up could include a new track and football field, a new multipurpose field, baseball and softball diamonds, new bleachers, a fieldhouse for storage, restrooms and added parking. Above all, building these new fields would mean reconstructing the drainage systems beneath them. Flooding is a persistent problem. Designs — which the school district and city split the costs for — show the full project would carry a price tag of $30 million. The current track is also approaching the end of its usable life, according to city Parks and Recreation director David Gill, complicating timing questions.

At their last meeting, some members of the City Council showed an appetite to pursue this project quickly. The Council could discuss joining the working group at its monthly meeting next Monday. The project is also a likely topic of discussion when the joint city-school committee — a group with representatives from city government and both Concord and Merrimack Valley School Districts — meets in January.

 

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com