New Bedford officials hold ribbon cutting for new high school athletic field

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (WJAR) — New Bedford leaders announced the official opening of the new state-of-the-art turf athletic field at a high school Tuesday morning.

Mayor Jon Mitchell, school committee members and other city officials came together at New Bedford High School to open the new field.

“New Bedford’s student athletes deserve first-rate athletic facilities. This new field is the latest addition in a series of major upgrades to the high school athletic campus,” Mitchell said.

According to city officials, the new field has a new scoreboard, bleachers, safety netting, underground drainage system and is surrounded by fencing and newly planted trees.

The New Bedford mayor’s office said the athletic field was built on the high school’s former tennis complex and is located at the corner of Parker and Library Streets.

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“At this time of year, as you walk down Hunter and Parker Streets, looking to the left and right, all you see are dozens and dozens of red and white clad athletes engaging in sports. Representing their city. Giving their all. But now they're giving their all in the top-notch facilities they deserve,” Superintendent Andrew O’Leary said.

Officials said the new field brings public health benefit to the neighborhood as the field was built on top of a safety layering, which puts a cap on the contaminated underground soil from the industrial dumping from the 1930s through the 1970s.

The project cost $2.9 million and was funded by federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, according to the mayor’s office.