Newly Built Fitch Baseball Field Has Error

One of the dugouts at the at must be pulled up and moved 12 feet because it blocks the view of left field from the press box.

The project is also $74,000 over budget. The school department received a $500,000 commitment from an anonymous donor late last year to improve the field, including installing dugouts and a press box to accommodate the New England Collegiate Baseball League team, The .

The project was finished this summer and ultimately cost $574,000, said Wes Greenleaf, director of buildings and grounds for Groton Public Schools. It was unclear how that difference would be paid. Greenleaf referred questions about the cost to the superintendent, who could not be reached.

The school department filed an administrative site plan on Oct. 7 to move one of the dugouts.

Greenleaf said this is what went wrong with the dugouts: The league wanted the press box directly behind the backstop, but it couldn’t go there because of property setback requirements.

It would have taken 90 days to get a variance and the team would have missed the season, so the school department asked if it should move the press box. 

At the same time, the department was trying to save money so it didn’t have a general contractor, but rather 10 contractors doing different things.

Ceasar Bentley Engineers of Groton was lead architect on the project, and subcontracted design of the dugouts to LLR, an architectural firm in New London, Greenleaf said. Another firm took the designs and built to specifications, then discovered the dugout roof was blocking the view from the press box, where the scoreboard is operated.

“Nobody had stood in the press box until the floors were up and the walls were up,” Greenleaf said.  “It’s like a nightmare.  Shouldn’t have happened, did happen.”

Ceasar Bentley referred questions Tuesday to Greenleaf. LLR did not return a call seeking comment.

Additional firms were involved in paving, fencing, layout and installation of the bleachers, Greenleaf said.

He said the architects are wiling to help fix the problem and Groton will use its own school facilities staff to move the dugout. He estimated it will cost about $6,000, including salaries for labor by school department employees. A public works crew poured the concrete of the new dugout location on Friday. A school maintenance crew will move the structure, possibly in the next few days.

“I wish I’d caught it,” Greenleaf said. “Nobody caught it."

Despite the error, he said the field is a valuable resource to the community, and he is focusing on this. He said everything was built to last; the aluminum seats need no maintenance, for example.

“The important thing is that for the next 50 years, this field will be used all the time,” he said. “It’ll be used by the kids of the schools, it’ll be used by the Little League, that thing is going to be used for decades and decades, and it’ll probably not have another upgrade. And the town is going to get their money’s worth.

"It is going to be an asset for the town, and that’s how I have to look at it.”