By Rod Hansen
Staff Writer

New Boston’s athletic teams will have new fields for practice and new parking spaces for players’ parents by the beginning of next season, the town’s recreation commissioner said.

The new fields, with the expected dimensions of 100 feet by 200 feet of level grass area, will offer practice space for the baseball and softball, soccer and tee-ball programs, said recreation commissioner Lee Brown.

“Right now, anywhere there’s an open field of grass, we practice,” Brown said, noting that athletic teams practice at the current recreation fields at Old Coach Road, as well as the 4-H Center riding fields on Route 13 and the New Boston Central School fields.

Brown called 4-H “very gracious” for letting the teams practice on the horse riding fields, but said players do have to contend with avoiding horse droppings when playing on those fields.

The parking lot, projected to have spaces for 50 additional cars, will also ease the traffic control problems of people parking on the side of Old Coach Road during games.

Motorists currently park on a single side of Old Coach Road during games, Brown said. This causes hazardous conditions on Saturdays and Thursdays, when the town transfer station is open and the fields are in use. The transfer station, also located on Old Coach Road, brings traffic on the road to dangerous levels.

“It’s a real problem in the spring and the fall. It’s an accident waiting to happen,” Brown said.

Voters who approved Article 17 on the town ballot March 14 solved the two-fold problem of scant parking space and practice fields, Brown said. That article, requesting $20,000 for the creation of a new recreational fields, passed by a margin of 530-389 at the voting session of Town Meeting.

The project is currently in the site planning stages, Brown said. The completed fields will use natural grass, and the parking lot will not be paved, he said.

Work will likely begin on the project in July, and the fields will be open for use next season, Brown said.