Charlie Breitrose
Watertown’s Town Hall.
Town officials denied the request from Watertown Youth Soccer for temporary lights to be placed at a park in town this fall.
The soccer program has been growing rapidly, and now has more than 600 children participating. WYS do not have not have enough room on fields during daylight hours to accommodate all the teams.
A proposal to put temporary lights at Arsenal Park was brought to the Town Council from the Human Services committee in September. The Council decided the idea needed more work, and there were questions remaining, such as who would pay for the rental, fueling and operation of the lights.
Last week, official met and decided the lights would not be a good idea, said Assistant Town Manager Steve Magoon.
“Temporary lights didn’t make sense,” Magoon said. “Arsenal Park is rented out to other entities, who didn’t want lights.”
Magoon said working with soccer and the other groups would mean moving lights on and off the field, and trucks driving on the field regularly.
“That wouldn’t work,” he said.
Director of Recreation Peter Centola said he would work to find places for permanent lighting, however that would not be in time for the fall soccer season.
“My interest is in creating more lighting, but do in on a permanent basis,” Centola said.
The head of Watertown Youth Soccer could not be reached for comment.
Magoon said the town would make efforts to find more field time for the soccer program.
In an email communication fowarded to the Town Council, Town Treasurer Joe DiVito told WYS President Mark Leonard that the soccer program would have access to Filippello Park three nights a week for now, and starting in November it could use the field five nights a week.
Leonard said WYS has also secured a few times at the DCR’s newly renovated Daly Field, across the river from Watertown in Brighton.
Thank you Town Council. Good decision. Get the costs.etc worked out first. Don’t start a new problem.
It wouldn’t be a problem if Peter Centola didn’t hate soccer so much. He is a “traditional sport” kind of guy and looks for ways to mess up soccer permit requests. The number of Watertown kids that Watertown Youth Soccer services is so huge compared to other sports. But that is not enough.
Soccer Fan. It’s not Peter’s fault, the problem lies with Soccer Parents like yourself. You guys are lazy. If it was up to Peter Centola he’d put lights and turf at Arsenal, Victory, and Fillapello. The Town Council knows that while you soccer is a huge group, they know that you’re as docile as baby seals. Last week the Town Council said it couldn’t figure out where to get $14k to put lights at Arsenal. This week they’re talking about spending $800k to buy 1 property at 10 Winter St to knock it down to make it part of some walking path. So while your kids are only practicing once a week in the dark and you’re cutting checks to rent field space in other the towns, the Town Council is wasting your money on houses, dog parks, and walking paths.. Try growing some hair on your chest and write to the Town Council or show up a Victory Field phase II meeting. Nah, never mind, don’t organize, just sit home and blame Peter..
Yikes. I totally agree you, Gary, that WYS has not leveraged their strength in numbers to do a good job advocating for this. But Peter Centola is a king with no checks on him and could make it a lot easier on soccer if he wanted to. Asking for lights is really a last resort due to issues just getting appropriate field permits.
I usually don’t respond, but with the amount of support that the recreation department has done over the last several years to support soccer I take exception to the comments that are baseless.
If you want to find out the truth, feel free to contact me at the office at 617-972-6494 or on my cell at 617-312-9007 and I would be happy with “Soccer Fan” or “Erica” or any other person or group who would like to sit down.
Regards,
Peter Centola
Director of Recreation