Adams Parks Commission to Address Russell Field Vandalism
ADAMS, Mass. — The Parks Commission is exploring different ways to secure the Russell Field tennis/pickleball courts after vandalism.
The commission read a report last week from the Department of Public Works that stated the brand-new tennis/pickleball courts have already been vandalized.
The report stated that people have sat on the nets that are now stretched out. The net hand cranks have been stripped, and there is graffiti on the court.
The commissioners agreed that the police should be made aware of the issue but acknowledged they may not have the time to enforce the park.
Commissioner James Fassell suggested locking the court up and leaving keys with local tennis organizations, however, the rest of the commission was hesitant to release keys out into the public.
A suggestion was made to install some sort of lockbox with a code that changed daily. Users could call the Town Hall and receive the new code. This way the town would also know who is using the court if vandalism occurs.
The commissioners felt both of these options could limit public use and agreed to pass off the issue to the Community Development Office.
They did recommend locking up the court with a combination lock in the interim. Users could call Town Hall to get the combination.
They also suggested a more immediate fix of locking the court at night. At the moment the court is always unlocked.
There was a concern if the already busy DPW squad would have time to lock and unlock the court. There was also the concern about unlocking the court on weekends with the DPW are not working.
As for the field itself, the commissioners had major concerns about the infield and wanted the contractors to know their grievances before they squared away the project. They asked that Community Development take this into consideration before they close out the project.
"I was down there a couple of weeks ago and it looked like it was wet in some spots," Commissioner Jacob Schutz said. "The drainage wasn't perfect. I would think it would be ok to ask that they take a strong look at these things."
The Russell Field project is in the final phase. In recent weeks contractors have fertilized and de-weeded the field slated for an early October completion.
Fassell felt the commission needed to be more proactive and made a motion, that went unanswered, to ask the contractor to pour mason sand in the infield to make it less muddy.
"I don't think it is acceptable at this point. I think it is a muddy infield and we need to control it," he said.
The commission did ask that Berkshire Arts and Technology Public Charter School limit its use of the field as the youth football program had done.
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