Kittery voters to decide whether to replace athletic fields with turf

KITTERY (WGME) -- Voters in Kittery are deciding on two local referendums with $15 million on the line.

One would improve outdoor spaces at a community center, while the other would put turf on the town's athletic fields, with strong feelings on both sides, especially involving the turf.

The current fields get a lot of use. Even grade school and middle school students use the fields, so they get a lot of play.

It's why a field committee supports an artificial turf field for football, baseball and other sports.

"It may look good at first, but it’s not. Like the holes. It’s rough,” Traip Academy senior Acadia Dorgan said.

Dorgan is a two-sport athlete.

She’s sprained her ankles stepping into divots on Memorial Field and wants to see the grass replaced with artificial turf.

"I think it’s a need at this point. Not a want,” Dorgan said. "Turf is flat, obviously. So, when the ball rolls, it’s not hitting the divots in the ground like natural grass has.”

Dorgan and coach Donny Gagnon are on the field committee that researched this.

They say an artificial field is better than cutting down trees to build new athletic fields.

"Rather than clear out those trees, let’s look at how we could do an athletic surface where we can have multiple sports, field hockey, you have all those things,” Gagnon said.

"It’s a plastic material, and we know that plastic is bad for health,” Jaime Silverstein of Kittery Climate Action Now said. “It’s bad for the environment.”

The group Kittery Climate Action Now is encouraging a no vote and says the grass should stay.

"There are examples of fields that kids are playing with,” Silverstein said. “And they can have many, many hours of playtime, and it’s almost comparable to artificial turf.”

"We did not want to put our kids or anybody in jeopardy,” Gagnon said.

Gagnon says the field committee found numerous ways to eliminate forever chemicals from the artificial turf.

"Yeah, it is a concern,” Dorgan said. “But we’ve done a good job finding those alternatives.”

They maintain a turf field and other upgrades are what’s best for student athletes.

"Some of our sports fields have no water,” Traip Academy Assistant Principal Mike Roberge said. “No electricity. And this field would have a field house available, restrooms, handicapped accessibility. All those things that we hope to provide for our student athletes.”

School officials say the current field has led to other student athletes being injured.

They’ve also had to move home games to other towns when the field is unplayable.