Soccer Club Donates $35,000 To NHS Fields

By Tanjua Damon

Newtown Board of Education members sat Tuesday night in amazement and appreciation as the Newtown Soccer Club presented the school district with $35,000 to help underwrite the costs of the Newtown High School field project.

Alan Helfer of the Newtown Soccer Club explained that the club wanted to donate the money so that a second field could be sodded and so a second practice field could have additional irrigation.

“We’re all aware of the shortage of fields in town. In order to take stress off the Tilson fields and Treadwell Park in the spring for sure, it would obviously give us more use in the spring as a club,” Mr Helfer said. “We had a fund put together over the years to buy a piece of land to construct a field, but we thought it was best suited here.”

School board chairman Elaine McClure thanked Mr Helfer for the club’s generosity. She also explained after checking with the district’s attorney that the money has to be a gift with no requirement to pay it back, that The Newtown Soccer Club would get no preferential treatment to use the fields, and that the board was under no obligation to keep it a soccer field forever. Mr Helfer said that the club understood and accepted these stipulations.

The school fields are used by the youth programs offered throughout the town after school events are scheduled first. The Newtown Parks and Recreation Department schedules the use of the fields by other groups.

Mr Helfer told the board the club hoped to have more useable fields in town for the school programs as well as the townwide youth programs.

“Since you were sodding one, you might as well do both,” Mr Helfer said. “We will have four good quality fields anyone can use. We’re more than happy to spend the money. It’s a win-win for everybody.”

The $1.3 million project will bring eight fields to the high school allowing for games and practices to return to the site for baseball, softball, football, soccer, lacrosse, and field hockey. Architects Clough, Harbour & Associates LLP of Rocky Hill designed the new complex, while CAS Construction of Cromwell has been hired to complete the job.

The plan to reconstruct the back fields was in the original Newtown High School renovation plan, back in 1995, but the project was cut when the price tag of the high school construction increased. The project is slated for completion in the fall, but the fields will be off-limits until the spring of 2003. The complex has been named the Ann Anderson/Harold S. DeGroat Athletic Complex after two founders of Newtown High School athletics.

Newtown High School Principal William Manfredonia explained to the board that the architects estimate it will cost just over $25,000 to sod the second field and it will cost over $18,000 to irrigate the upper practice field as well as a $3,500 fee for designing the system, totaling $47,230. Although it is over the gift amount from the Newtown Soccer Club, the first thing will be to sod the second field and the next will be to begin laying the materials needed for irrigation. Mr Helfer said there may be other organizations out there that can help come up with the $12,230 needed to complete the irrigation portion or at least part of it.

“We appreciate you coming forward,” board member Earl Gordon said. “It’s a very generous gift.”

The school board voted unanimously to accept the $35,000 donation.

“I think it’s the largest gift we’ve received,” Mrs McClure said. “A huge thank you goes to the Newtown Soccer Club.”