Board Wants Another Lease for Park

Should Barrington renew its lease with the state for the exclusive use of Haines Memorial State Park?

The Parks and Recreation Commission thinks the town should sign another lease agreement. It voted unanimously last Thursday evening to recommend that the Town Council pursue another one-year lease with the Department of Environmental Management.

The one-year lease expires in June. The lease gives Barrington sole access to the playing fields and the dog park at Haines Park as long as the town maintains the fields.

The cost of that maintenance is between $33,000 and $35,000 a year, said Joe Piccerelli, Department of Public Works superintendent, who is a liaison for DPW to the commission.

“Where would the teams play if we don’t?” said Ed McKinlay, vice chairman of the commission, in making a motion to sign another lease.

Barrington Little League and Pop Warner uses the baseball fields at the state park. Little League opened its 2012 season on Sunday, April 29, and a full slate of games is already scheduled for those fields.

The board voted 6-0 to make that recommendation to the Town Council.

A one-year lease was signed a year ago after Barrington bumped heads with the DEM over a small part of the park that is not included in the lease. That strip of land between Haines Park Road and Humphrey Road on the north is now maintained by the DEM.

The controversy over that strip of the park led the Town Council to approach DEM about a one-year lease a year ago after Barrington had leased the playing fields for 20 years. A longer-term lease may not even be in the town’s best interests with additional fields at Chianese Field being brought on line, the councilors decided a year ago. See a Patch story on the controversy last year.

In return for their use, Barrington handles all of the maintenance for the fields and surrounding area. There will be no rent for the 70 acres in that part of the park, which straddles the border with Riverside village in East Providence.

Playing fields cover most of the acreage, which sits between the East Bay Bike Path and Washington Road for the most part east of Metropolitan Drive. Besides the Little League and Pop Warner, the Barrington soccer and lacrosse leagues use those fields.