The following announcement was provided by the City of Watertown:
The Watertown Department of Public Works (DPW) and the Watertown Recreation Department have concluded that the Saltonstall Field must be shut down immediately due to poor field conditions resulting from overuse and inclement weather.
The turf grass will not recover unless it is allowed to rest. With aeration/seeding/fertilization/topdressing to be done over the next month, we expect the field to fully recover for Spring 2025 sports.
Please note that goals will be locked during this period and the field will be monitored. Non-permitted use, which includes dogs and golf, is strictly prohibited.
Three days after the Faire on the Square? The lack of attention to our grass fields is a recurring theme.
Where is the plan to repair and maintain our fields? Every year we seem to be caught by surprise with some field conditions needing “urgently attention”.
Since we outsource field maintenance, there must be time to develop a year round field readiness strategy that does not require the shutting down of fields. Belmont, Waltham, Cambridge do not have to rest fields. I assume we have the same climate that they do, so it must be the care and maintenance plan that is deficient.