Winchester To Look at Completing High School Track

This fall, will be entering its second full year of use. The field, which opened in November of 2009, was built largely by private donations and with the help of the

The council, along with the Field Management Committee, has been working on completing the . The football field and Astroturf was Phase I. The second phase of the project is to complete a state-of-the-art track and field facility and to add another football field inside the oval of the track.

Originally the field management committee had asked Capital Planning for funds to help repair , which was built on a stump site, as well as money to help complete Phase 2 at Manchester Field. The committee decided to withdraw its request for funds for Mullen Field and focus all its attention on completing the new track.

According to Chris Nelson, Director of the , J of the , assured him that the DPW can fix Mullen Field so it can last another three to five years.

“We’re not going to look at another field until this is completed,” Nelson said. “A high school track would be something the town has not seen in 10 years.”

The state declared the track unsafe for competitive track over a decade ago, and the Winchester track team has not hosted a track meet since. The Board of Selectmen backed Nelson’s request for $200,000 from the town to be put towards Manchester Field. The town paid over $1 million to help complete Phase 1.

“This project would benefit a great number of students,” said James Alexander, captain of the track team. “Each team draws over 150 runners. We’ve had four state champions in the last five years and we’ve never had a home meet. We’ve never practiced on a real track.”

The Capital Planning Committee now needs to rank all the requests they receive and Town Meeting will then vote on whether or not they will appropriate the funds.

“This is a critical time of the project,” said Paul Manganaro, President of the Field Development Council. “We feel that this $200K would springboard the project ahead several months.”

Manganaro said that they if they receive the $200,000, the council still needs to raise another $400,000 to complete the project.  

The board voted that if the council can come up with the remaining money and the town’s $200,000 was just to “top off” funding for the track then they would support funding the project.

“If Capital can come up with the $200,000 to get the track I’d like a commitment that the council can raise the extra $400,000,” said Selectman Jim Johnson.