(This letter was submitted to the Rye Record for publication on 11/4/23. A condensed version will be posted to their website and included in print. Below is the full letter.)
An Open Letter From Let The Kids Play on the Nursery Field Improvement Project
When the City of Rye acquired land from a privately owned nursery business in 2002, it was converted to park status and became what is now known as Nursery Field. At the time, the land was graded for field use, grass was planted but adequate drainage was not provided. For several years, it served its intended use and kids were outside playing, but unfortunately this is no longer true.
Fast forward to 2023. Our population has exploded, the number of student athletes has
tripled, and the demand for playable surfaces has increased. We have seen the same dynamic in our schools, with the need for larger classrooms and facilities. Improvements and expansion have occurred with the addition of more classrooms and teachers at our elementary, middle, and high schools. Yet when we look at the footprint of our outdoor playable space, we have not provided our kids with what they need.
In this area of the country where our spring and fall are besieged with cold, wet weather, it is impossible to keep grass fields open for play as much as kids need them. It’s why you’ve seen a proliferation of turf fields across the country and especially here in the Northeast at the college, high school, and town level. It’s why most of the Ivy League schools - institutions that know quite a bit about science and health - have between four and seven turf fields. It’s why communities in close proximity to us, such as New Canaan, Darien, and Harrison, each have three or more turf fields. It’s why Greenwich and New Rochelle have upwards of seven turf fields. It’s why Bedford just built two additional turf fields to bring their total to three.
For the past several years our grass fields have failed to support our kids. They have been closed for hundreds of hours in both the spring and the fall. And our grass fields will soon be closed to rest until the middle of April, meaning no kids can go on them until after Spring break. Every year, the lack of reliable playing space affects thousands of kids in Rye. That’s thousands of kids who instead of being outside running around with their friends, are more likely to be inside, more likely to be alone, and more likely to be on a screen.
There is a narrative amongst those opposed to the Nursery Field Improvement Project that private citizens are trying to fast track the process. This could not be further from the truth. Since 2019, there have been two not-for profit groups of private citizens, first the Rye Youth Athletic Foundation and, currently, Let The Kids Play, who have spent hundreds of hours of time working closely with and listening to city officials, subject matter experts, and concerned citizens to help do what is best for our entire community. In addition, the city has now hired two separate, independent, engineering firms to fully analyze the project at Nursery Field. Importantly, both engineering firms reached the same conclusion, that there will be no additional adverse environmental impact or increased flooding by constructing a turf field at Nursery. The overwhelming consensus of the facts, data and studies by the experts has concluded time and time again that there would be no adverse impact to improving a field that is not able to meet its intended use.
Many have called for Nursery Field to remain a grass field with improved drainage. We'd like to explain why grass is not a good solution if you care about kids playing more. Even if $1+ million dollars was spent to improve the drainage on Nursery Field, it is anticipated that this could only provide 15-20 additional days of play each year for our kids. The field would still need to be closed when it rains. It would still need to be closed in the off-season to rest. And it would still need to be closed in the early spring when the weather is wet and cold. And perhaps worst of all, because Nursery Field is scheduled for over 30 hours of use each week, the investment in the field would literally and figuratively be trampled into the ground within a few short years.
Meanwhile, using the $2.2+ million dollars pledged to Let The Kids Play to date, the City of Rye can provide the kids with literally hundreds of extra days of play (year-round play), and on a surface that will remain perfect no matter how much use it gets. And turf fields are actually less expensive to maintain on an annual basis than grass fields. Turf fields in 2023 are not your turf fields from the past. They are fully recyclable, and do not contain PFAS. They also no longer use car tires for infill. The proposed field at Nursery will use wood chips and sand as the infill.
For those of us that have lived in Rye for the past decade, we have seen our fair share of storms and hurricanes - from Sandy, to Ida, and recently tropical storm Ophelia. When that much rain falls in a short period of time, it can have a devastating effect on the Blind Brook, which drains water from all over the County. Nursery Field itself has never flooded in any of these storms. Not once. As a matter of fact, if you drive there during a storm, cars are stored there, in the parking lot, as it’s considered a high ground in Rye. Out of an abundance of caution, the proposed new field will be even higher than the one that is there now. It will NOT be in the flood plain. That is a FACT.
When we look at the current proposal of the new turf field at Nursery, we are also very focused on the normal rain storms, especially the ones that cause flooding along Milton Avenue. The current field does not hold or store its own water. Because it doesn’t drain or absorb water, when it rains, the water simply collects at the top and then runs off the field into surrounding areas which contributes to the flooding of our neighbors along Milton Avenue. The proposed turf system will act as a “storm management” system. It is designed to hold rain that falls onto it and store it underneath the field, and then slowly release it at the best identified location. A field of this size is estimated to hold 8 inches of rain, about 66,000 gallons of water! The study conducted by GZA clearly states that a turf field at Nursery would “provide enhanced stormwater runoff capabilities” and “will not impact flooding on adjacent properties”
Many continue to say, OK we get it, but let's do this somewhere else. Well, we can't. Sterling Field and the Rye High School Upper Field are too small to accommodate a full-sized playing field. Disbrow is big enough but it is used for baseball and softball. And the elementary schools either do not have the space, or do not want to disturb their recess area. That leaves Rye Rec and Nursery as the only two options for a full-sized field. Rye Rec Field is a very high-functioning multi-purpose field that serves a variety of different uses in addition to sports programming, drains well, and offers the ability to rotate the field around on that location year after year and not wear down just one spot. For these reasons, Rye Rec was identified as serving our kids and our town very well and in less need of remediation. By comparison, Nursery Field serves our kids very poorly in its current state. It drains extremely slowly and poorly, has one of the highest cancellation rates of any field in town, is only used for sports programming, and cannot be rotated so it is routinely trampled into mud.
The review of Nursery Field as a potential site for a turf field has not been casual or cursory. The hydrology study done at Nursery Field stated clearly that a turf field in that location will NOT make stormwater management worse in that area. And the environmental study conducted by GZA stated clearly that a turf field at that location will in no way harm the neighboring wetlands and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Office stated a will in no way harm the nearby historical locations. The Rye Conservation Commission Advisory Council sent several follow-up questions to GZA and they responded very clearly that none of their concerns were supported by the science and analysis.
If there are prohibitive reasons to exclude Nursery Field from consideration for turf, we are more than open to hear them, but the independent studies and analysis do not support that view.
It’s time we finally bring Nursery Field back to what it was originally intended for, a usable outdoor space for our kids. Let the Kids Play supports turf fields because turf fields support kids playing, support kids being outside, and support kids having fun.
We have been patient, we have been consistent, we have been respectful but we will not sit idly by to allow the opposition minority try to delay this topic until it dies. If they succeed, it will be thousands of kids who pay the price.
The kids have waited long enough. Please send an email to nurseryfield@ryeny.gov to demand that the City Council votes on the Nursery Field Improvement Plan. Our community and our kids need this, now more than ever.
Signed,
The Board of Directors of Let The Kids Play
Scott Alberi, Caitlin Colvin, Chris Cunningham, Bill Curran, Brett Ehrlich, Milly Keighery, Andrew Layng, Gavin Molinelli, Matthew Pymm, Chris Watson
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Let the Kids Play is a project of Rye Youth Athletic Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Our federal tax ID number (EIN) is 84-2394249.
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