Lesley University, already in a partnership with Medford for indoor sports, seeks a connection to Arlington to see whether it can help expand the town’s outdoor offerings.
Spy Pond Field: For boys and girls of summer.
Town Manager Adam Chapdelaine says Lesley is looking at helping to pay for a new ball field at Poet’s Corner, near St. Camillus, or at Spy Pond Field.
Marylou Batt, vice president for administration, confirmed those locations.
“We’ll try to see what works …. “discussions are very preliminary,” she said of talks in Arlington, which included Superintendent Kathleen Bodie and Arlington High Principal Matt Janger in December and continued in January with Chapdelaine.
Other communities
In an interview Friday, Feb. 8, Batt said Lesley is “talking to a number” of communities.
The expanding university in and near Porter Square has little space for sports. The baseball team plays its games in Northborough, about 28 miles away.
Lesley has a sports partnership with Buckingham Browne & Nichols Upper School, but is losing the facility it uses to building plans.
Comments about Arlington’s talks with Lesley arose during a discussion of lights for athletics fields by members of the Arlington High School Building Committee. Before voting to add lights to the project, AHS Principal Matt Janger and Chapdelaine made reference to Lesley. Janger suggested the university was talking “millions.”
In the interview, Batt said discussions had not progressed to any specific amount. She added that the timeline for a rebuilt AHS — a project opening in 2024 — would not work for Lesley, which needs fields sooner.
Chapdelaine told YourArlington on Feb. 7 that Lesley “is seeking field space for baseball/softball and a rectangular field space for soccer and other sports that use a similar sized field. They are also looking for a field with lights.
“In our discussions, we have looked at Spy Pond Field and Poets’ Corner as possible sites for a collaboration. They have made clear their ability and intention to be serious financial partners in a potential collaboration, but we have not advanced to a point of discussion where budgets have been proposed.”
Batt said the Lesley partnership in Medford goes back about a year and involved contributions to improve basketball and volleyball facilities. In December, Medford dedicated a newly renovated gym after the project was pursued last May.
Shirley Canniff, chair of the town Park & Recreation Commission, has been asked to comment. Preliminary discussions are said to be underway about improving the aging grandstands at Spy Pond Field.
Feb. 6, 2019: Lights for athletics fields included in AHS rebuild cost
This news summary was published Monday, Feb. 11, 2019. Allison Goldsberry, publisher of InsideMedford, a YourArlington partner, contributed to this report.
