Groton's Finance Committee voted 6-0 Sept. 21 to recommend a $3.9 million overhaul of the Cow Pond Brook athletic fields, including lighting for a second youth baseball field, for the fall town meeting warrant.

GROTON --

TOWN

The Finance Committee heard a presentation from Megan, a consultant with Activitas, and Mary, chair of the Park Commission, on a redesigned Cow Pond Brook Field Improvements plan that trims roughly $900,000 from the version presented at last year's town meeting. The savings came from material swaps: asphalt berms and gravel paving in place of granite curbing in some areas, asphalt walkways instead of concrete near the parking lot, stone dust instead of porous asphalt on perimeter walkways, and a reduction in copper used in the electrical distribution work, officials said.

The revised budget came to $3.857 million, rounded up to $3.9 million for a contingency cushion. The plan relocates a baseball field, upgrades the parking area, and adds athletic lighting at youth baseball field two, a feature officials said is not required by the project's state grant. Little League baseball is contributing $20,000 toward that lighting, according to the committee's discussion. The low bidder, M.J. Cataldo, has previously worked on town fields projects and is "ready to hit the ground running" if the warrant article is approved, a town official told the committee.

The committee's unanimous vote sends the project to the fall town meeting warrant for a final decision by voters.

Compiled from team and league reports, reader submissions, and local coverage.