Allan Appel Photo
The Bowen Field gatehouse on Crescent Street.
Ticket windows may one day open again at a restored Bowen Field gatehouse on Crescent Street.
That prospect was raised at Tuesday night’s City Plan Commission meeting as commissioners approved submission of an application from the Board of Ed to tap $8 million in state funding for a long overdue major renovation of the Bowen Athletic Complex adjacent to James Hillhouse High School. The city would have to put up $3.6 million in matching funds. (Click here for a previous story detailing the plan.)
In what the City Plan report characterizes as “an unusual move,” the state legislature has already approved funding for the project. All the Board of Ed has to do is get the approval of City Plan, the Board of Aldermen, and then the Citywide School Building Committee through which process the project now begins to move.
With that in hand, the Board of Ed would vote to submit an application for the money at the end of October.
First steps were taken at the City Plan meeting Tuesday night with the unanimous vote in favor.
“Getting Bowen fixed up has been on the agenda [of the Board of Ed and city] for five to ten years,” noted City Plan Director Karyn Gilvarg.
The field and related facilities were built more than 60 years ago and continue to be widely used despite evident wear and tear.
Melissa Bailey Photo
Beverly E. Felder and Glendora Rochelle McMillan on the Bowen track.
The proposed project includes a new artificial turf field, a new eight-lane track, renovation or replacement of the grandstands, and the renovation of the gatehouse.
New public toilets, a concession stand, new locker rooms, and night lighting are also on the wish list of a plan that does not yet have a design.
Once work gets under way, the plan comes back to City Plan for a full site plan review.
A cautionary paragraph in the project description says: “It should be noted that the funding provided by the state will not cover the costs of all the desired amenities.”
“Our legislators zipped it through. Bowen Field should be great,” City Plan Chair Ed Mattison said after the vote.
What a shame to put in an expensive synthetic turf field when a grass field could have been put it. It would have been cheaper by far - and safer. The synthetic turf fields use 40,000 ground up rubber tires in each field and have never been proven safe for children to play on.
Perhaps they should rethink this decision.