Plans For Upgrades At Mashashimuet Park Unveiled At Sag Harbor School Board Meeting

Members of the public got their first look at what a new and improved Mashashimuet Park would look like, as plans were unveiled at the Sag Harbor School Board meeting on Monday night.

Members of the Mashashimuet Park Board of Trustees were at the meeting as Superintendent Jeff Nichols displayed the blueprint for the renovation and expansion plans designed by Ed Hollander and drawn up by district architectural firm H2M.

The plans were the result of months of meetings between Nichols, the architects and designers, members of the park board and several members of the school board.

Nichols explained that the park board and the district were committed to three “key considerations” when drawing up the plans: the district’s athletic field needs; staying true to the traditional aesthetic of the park; and minimizing any environmental impact.

If the capital project is approved by voters, significant improvements will be made to the park that has been the home of Pierson sports for many generations of student-athletes, and has not seen any significant or large scale upgrades or renovations in decades.

The plan calls for renovating and refurbishing the current varsity baseball diamond and adding a second baseball diamond opposite that. Perhaps the most notable new addition will be a full-sized high school track, which would be situated at the center of the property, where the current girls softball field sits. A regulation sized grass field for field hockey and soccer would be situated in the middle of that track.

In the back portion of the property, currently home to the field hockey team’s practice field — it was the team’s home field for games until more recent years, when a new natural grass field was installed behind the high school — the plans call for adding both a softball field and Little League field.

Nichols shared that the School Board and Park Board members had been meeting since last August to come up with the plan, and considered no less than 11 different design configurations before settling on what they presented on Monday night.

“The key considerations were to limit the impact to the area, and keep within the current footprint, if you will, of the open space and not get into clearing other areas,” Nichols said.

Nichols added that the parties were still working out more details, such as bathrooms and seating, but said that Hollander and the architects at H2M expressed confidence that they can locate any additional facilities of that nature within the design layout that was presented on Monday night.

He also added that the plan allows for the kind of beautification and attention to aesthetics that has been imperative.

“The design has ample room for additional landscaping, so when you come to the park, you’re not looking at five fields and a track,” he said. “There will be landscaping to break that up. My sense is that it’s going to be equally as beautiful, if not more beautiful when it’s all done.”

Park Board President Janine Rayano spoke briefly after Nichols’s presentation, reiterating several key points.

“We’re really committed to improving the area we already cleared,” she said. “We know we have a big group interested in preserving natural habitats.”

The solidification of the plans was the first big step toward making a new and improved park a reality, but it depends on the public now as to whether the project will actually go forward. The parameters of a term sheet that the district arrived at with the park at the end of last summer, after their current contract had expired, outlined that the district would sign a one-year lease for the 2021-22 school year, and that the signing of a long-term lease after that would be contingent upon a bond referendum passing to fund the improvements.

Nichols addressed the proposed timeline for that vote and getting the work underway if it passes.

“Initially, we were hoping to go out and put the bond referendum on the May [budget] vote,” he said. “But I think that’s rushed at this point. We need to allow for ample time for the community to ask the questions they need to ask and for us to adequately explain the benefits of the plan.”

Nichols said the district is now shooting for adding the bond referendum to the library vote, set for Thursday, September 29.

Several board members expressed their support for the project after the presentation, speaking about the ways they believe it will benefit the district’s students and the Sag Harbor community at large.

“The track is really exciting because it’s something the kids and the community haven’t had,” board member Jordana Sobey said, pointing out that the addition of the track could potentially allow the district to host some of its own teams that it has traditionally had to enter into a shared sports agreement with a neighboring district for because of lack of the proper facility. “It’s such a huge add-on and it will be exciting to see how it might shift sports here.”

Board member Chris Tice was equally enthusiastic about the plans.

“What I love is that it not only elevates this institution, which is part of everyone’s childhood, but in doing a service to enhance what the students will have, it will also enhance what the community has. Any time we can invest in something that benefits both, it serves Sag Harbor very well.”