HADLEY — Renovation and expansion of the playing fields at Hopkins Academy, which will be accessible to the public when not being used by students and for school athletics, may get underway this year.
The first phase of the work is estimated at more than $700,000, but before it can begin an additional $185,000 is being sought by Hadley school officials from the town’s Community Preservation Act account.
Residents at the annual Town Meeting in May will be asked to consider using the CPA money to support these athletic field improvements, as well as $325,591 in other projects. CPA Committee Chairman Andy Morris-Friedman said the committee is recommending the spending to voters.
The plans at the school include adding a new softball diamond, a new baseball diamond and a multiuse field that will primarily be used for soccer but also for field hockey and other sports. Additionally, a 2,120-foot long, 8-foot wide asphalt walkway would be built on the perimeter.
Superintendent Anne McKenzie said Monday that with the new round of money, the project should begin sometime after July 1, depending on the bids received.
“The goal will be to start the work in the summertime,” McKenzie said.
The project is being supplemented with $100,000 from the trustees of Hopkins Academy, $40,000 from the PTO, including money from the Steve Lewis Subaru Share the Love fundraiser, and significant private donations.
When complete, the new fields will mean games and practices will no longer need to be shifted to the fields near the Hadley Elementary School or to the Hadley Young Men’s Club.
The project will use a portion of 8 acres of agricultural land that was acquired for school use in fall 2011 and that was intended to double the size of the athletic fields.
In October 2012, the Berkshire Design Group of Northampton developed plans that would have cost $1.6 million to build. By June 2016, the School Committee decided to do the project in phases.
McKenzie said the cost of doing the first phase has increased from $400,000, largely due to rising costs of earthwork, drainage and irrigation.
Town and school officials are also trying to clarify and resolve the ownership of an approximate quarter-acre portion of the property before the work begins, she said.
Morris-Friedman said the $510,591 is the largest request of CPA money brought to a single Town Meeting.
Two other projects are preserving 208 acres as farmland, $83,091 for the 38-acre Niedbala Farm, and $210,000 for the 170-acre Szala Farm.
Another $32,000 will go to the Park and Recreation department to complete renovations Zatyrka Park.
Two requests come from the Friends of Lake Warner, one for $1,576 to prevent lakeside erosion, the other for $810 for bacteria testing.
Finally, $500 will be used to develop a plan for preserving two 1740-era deerskin maps of sections of colonial Hadley. Along with the Goffe Bible, a 1599 book that may have been used by King Charles I regicide William Goffe, the maps are considered treasures of the town.
Currently, the CPA has $2.5 million. It added $133,192 from a local tax surcharge and $115,774 in state matching funds last year.
