WESTBROOK – The lights are coming down at the Olmsted Field complex at Westbrook High School, leaving school and city officials to decide how to pay for their costly replacement.
The football field and its surrounding track have been closed since Oct. 3, when an inspection found large amounts of rot in the wooden cross sections and mountings that held up the lights, which have gone largely untouched since being built in 1973. No events could be held at the stadium due to safety issues, causing all athletic, music and community events, including the Blue Blazes’ homecoming football game with York and a high school marching band competition, to be moved to alternative venues. Workers began removing the lights Wednesday, with work set to be completed as early as Thursday, allowing the complex to reopen for day use.
The school committee last Wednesday approved unanimously the hiring at a cost of $12,060 of Westbrook-based contractor CCB, Inc. to remove the lights and the cross sections, leaving the tall wooden poles in place. Of that total, $3,470 was spent prior to the vote as an emergency measure to investigate the extent of the rot.
Replacing the lights so that night events can return to the field is a much more expensive proposition, pegged at “north of $300,000” by school board Chairman Ed Symbol. Superintendent Marc Gousse told the board that undertaking such a costly project is a decision should involve more than school officials.
“I think the question of what happens next is a bigger question for the entire community, and with the permission of the school committee I think a conversation needs to be entertained on a larger scale with municipal and community resources,” Gousse said. “This is a community facility, used by the community in a lot of ways. It’s going to be a time for the community to have a conversation about use, and a plan and a vision, and with all due respect I think it’s way bigger than me. It’s a community facility, and have a community discussion about what the vision is and go from there.”
Though the committee had just one bid for the work, and are usually required get multiple bids for work costing more than $3,000, they deemed this an emergency situation.
“I’m concerned that, God forbid, anything comes down and someone gets hurt, and the longer they’re up there we run that risk,” Gousse said at the meeting. “Yes, we should be going out and getting extra bids, but I would like to expedite the process and the recommendation from the city engineer was to get somebody in there and get these things down and make it safe.
“I know it’s a lot of money, but it’s hard to put a price on safety.”
The wood and steel that make up the cross sections and mountings were “compromised,” said Gousse. “You have lights hanging,” he said, referring to photographs being circulated among committee members.
The wooden posts themselves do not pose any threat, he said.
“They’re solid in the ground,” Gousse said.
Committee member Alex Stone (1st Ward, agreed that getting the lights down as soon as possible was the prudent course.
“Let’s get these down, make sure that these are safe and get people using the complex again while the community figures out what we’re going to do,” he said.
Workers began removing the lights at Olmsted Field in Westbrook on Wednesday, and the complex was set to reopen for day use on Monday. Whether to replace the lights, at a cost “north of $300,000,” according to Ed Symbol, chairman of the school committee, has yet to be decided. (Staff photo)Send questions/comments to the editors.
