Staff Writer

Youth football players will likely have a new place to work out after a recommendation Tuesday from the Community Services and Recreation Advisory Board to allow practices at the Black Point Community Park startingg next month.

The meeting, which pitted objections from neighbors of the park against needs of the Scarborough Football Club, gave Community Services Director Bruce Gullifer the signal he needed to approve Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoon practices at the park through November.

The plan allows the Scarborough Football Club to use the field, adjacent to St. Maximillian Kolbe Church, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Community Services must develop a traffic control plan for the 50-space parking lot.

Brown, the club president, said opposition to using the park had not surprised him, especially as the park is not fenced in.

“It is their backyards and I respect that,” he said.

Practices will likely be held from 4:15 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and the club reduced its request for using the park from four days to three, Brown said.

Use of the park is conditional, and effects of noise and traffic will be evaluated after the season. Art Dillon chairman of the five-member board, said he lives about four houses away from the park and abstained from the 3-1 vote because of concerns from abutters.

The 11 acres that became Black Point Park were donated to the town in 2001 by KDA Development as part of the approval agreement for the nearby Highlands subdivision, according to town records.

The 8.5-acre field area was graded with loam taken from Scarborough High School when the artificial turf field was installed, Gullifer said.

Use of the park remains an unsettled issue, said Town Manager Tom Hall.

Emily Ward, who spoke out against allowing practices at the field, recalled that town plans to create an athletic complex with seating and lights drew objections from neighbors and led to creation of focus groups to discuss the future of the park.

A referendum question for a $1.2 million bond to develop the park was defeated 2,997-1,354 in 2007.

Black Point Road resident John Kenney said the groups were clear in opposition to using the park for organized sports.

“It is not conducive to the neighborhood it is in,” he said.

Traffic on Black Point Road, especially during rush hour, makes the park a bad choice, said Black Point Road resident Dick Moran. Moran asked why no traffic study had been done while the town considered the plan.

“I watch near misses on a daily basis,” Moran said of vehicles driving along Black Point Road.

Gullifer said objections from neighbors had to be weighed against needs of the town during consideration of the plan.

With nearly 140 members in second- through eighth- grade, the Scarborough Football Club is one of many youth sports programs in need of practice space.

Brown said the 40 middle school-age players now practice at a privately owned field behind Bosal Foam off Payne Road in the Dunstan Corner area. Brown said the owner does not want to make needed improvements. Second- through sixth-grade players practice at a field off Tenney Road.

“Whatever you put down as parameters, we will follow them,” Brown told the board and neighbors. “As far as 40 kids yukking it up in a backyard, that won’t happen.”

The club will pay to line the field and use a portable goal post. Practices will be held on different sections of the field to limit wear and the group will post a $2,000 maintenance bond as part of the plan, Dillon said.

Parking at St. Maximillian Kolbe will be prohibited.

Ward said her objections had little to do with the football club or how it is operated. She is concerned that the town has never determined whether the park should be open space or more multi-use.

Hall, who said the football club will not be the last youth sports group seeking use of the field, agreed with Ward.

“What will the park be when it grows up?” Hall asked.

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219