Monday, November 16, 2009
Riley Field Renovations
Riley Field is located on Schoolhouse Lane, off of Broad Street and is the old entrance to Central Junior High School. If you drive up this lane you will pass Allerton House, an assisted living complex, and find the fields around back. The Weymouth Little League has had two fields located here for many years and the Riley Fields have served as soccer fields for the town's club teams and youth soccer leagues for several years also. Mayor Sue Kay was involved with the youth soccer program for quite a few years long before becoming Mayor and was an essential voice in keeping the original Central Junior fields as athletic fields.
Mayor Kay also was an essential part of voting down her predecessor's sports plan for Legion Field back in 2006 and along with the Town Council promptly turned her back on Weymouth's historic football gridiron allowing it to become a tangled, overgrown mess. Recently, due to citizen complaints, some money has been put towards cleaning it up and the Community Preservation Committee is looking into rebuilding the fence surrounding the field.
Now it has come to light that a non-profit group has gone to Mayor Kay with a plan to make Riley Field the sports complex that was originally slated for Legion Field. Well, maybe not exactly, but close to it. The neighbors there are understandably upset.
It appears that, as I have suspected all along, there are other plans for historic old Legion and playing football is not one them. It should be interesting to see how this unfolds. I will not stand idly by and watch Legion Field turned into another park for dog-walkers.
POSTED BY STAN on November 11, 2009
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