Politics & Government

What Is The Status of the Fisher Meadows Expansion Project?

The Recreation and Parks Department recommended that the Town Council make new fields at Fisher a priority in the Capital Improvement Program.

All that stands in the way of the town of Avon expanding Fisher Meadows is funding. 

Recreation and Parks Director Glenn Marston, who plans to retire in August, addressed the Town Council in November, "recommending Fisher Meadows as the top priority" for recreation needs in the capital improvement program budget, according to a memorandum of the timeline Marston prepared for the council's Dec. 16 meeting.

As for when Avon will be getting more fields at Fisher Meadows, that timeline is undefined.

"The plans are complete," Robertson said. "The project is subject to funding and I do not anticipate it will go forward in [Fiscal Year 2015]." 

That leaves Avon in the same position it was in two years ago when the Planning and Zoning Commission approved the expansion plan in September of 2011  – waiting for funding. The idea at the time was to get the plan "shovel ready" in case any grants or funding surfaced and to complete the application and permitting process. 

The plan includes seven multi-purpose field on the northern back end of Fisher Meadows, previously used as farmland. 

Fisher meadows was deeded to the town in December 1976 and the fields opened in June 1982. In 2002, the town purchased the property and gave Ronald Simmons, the tenant at the time using the land, notice of five growing seasons and the town's intent to use 11.9 acres of the land to expand the fields.

In 2007, the town finished its recreation and parks master plan, "which included the subject of field expansion" and "would help recover one baseball/softball field and one full sized multipurpose field already on the site," according to Marston's memo. 

The field expansion of Fisher Meadows has been part of the "5-10 year Capital Improvement Program" for many years, according to the memo, to address Avon's growing athlete population and to create more parking.

To date, Avon has invested $112,691"in furthering this expansion" and the town's Fisher Fund has accumulated $240,243 as of December, Marston said in his memo.


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