MCAA Seeks More Playing Fields

Milford's youth athletics club is working on plans for new sports fields on the town-owned Brox Property.

The Milford Community Athletic Association, or MCAA, has been organizing youth sports in Milford for more than 50 years.

But soccer program director Dan Ayotte said the town has outgrown the current field space available. He said his program met capacity last fall and had to turn children away.

"We're in crunch time," he said Tuesday. "We have 1980-sized fields for a population of 1980 and you've got double the population. We're simply out of space and it's just time."

On Tueday, Ayotte and MCAA members asked the Board of Selectmen for consensus support for new fields on 12 acres of the large Brox Property already designated for recreational use.

Ayotte said the MCAA would propose leasing the land from the town, constructing and maintaining the fields independent of taxpayer funding. He said the MCAA has a similar lease arrangement with the town for the MCAA fields on North River Road.

Ayotte said members of the MCAA had asked the board for similar consideration for fields on the Brox Property in the past, though plans were never finalized.

"I know this has been approached before by other people in the organization, but I feel at this time we have a good group that knows the situation we're in with the fields and is pretty motivated to get something done in the next few years," he told the Board of Selectmen Tuesday.

The board agreed Tuesday to consider the idea. Ayotte said his group would return with concrete plans in five or six months.

Selectmen Vice Chairman Tim Finan is a member of the committee working on the MCAA fields project.

"It's good timing because this year the Planning Board is reviewing the Recreation master plan, so this all will fit perfectly in with planning," Finan said.