Over 100 residents recently signed a petition against the construction of the athletic fields at Tabor Academy. One resident, Mark Waniga, is leading the way. June 30, Waniga stood outside the post office and displayed the petition which read, “By our signatures below, we request that the Town of Marion Selectmen temporarily halt the construction of the Tabor Athletic Field Project until the Project is thoroughly reviewed for compliance with local, state and federal regulations [sic].”

Waniga’s effort happened one day before Building Commissioner Scott Shippey halted construction on the fields. Waniga and residents have a number of concerns about the project including its size, the four 90-foot light towers being installed and the use of artificial turf.

“People do seem concerned about it,” Waniga says. “I think they’re concerned about it on a much larger scale as well. Dump trucks showed up one day and started digging up eight acres, so people are a little freaked out about that.” Waniga’s main concern is on the “crumb rubber,” a recycled product of scrap tires, used in the artificial turf as cushioning. He sites numerous studies on the toxicity of the crumb rubber and potential to cause great environmental hazard, should it get into the bay.

“In a rain storm,” he says, “the rubber will run off of the surface and get into the wetlands and find itself into the bay. The drainage of the field runs across the street and into the wetlands. This is essentially ground up tire, which floats. So it’s going to float into the wetlands and float into the bay. And then be eaten by fish or whatever else.”

Although Waniga is focusing primarily on the crumb rubber, he mentioned how important of an issue the light towers are as well.

“This is going to be on par with something you’d find in Gillette Stadium,” he said. “The impact of the light pollution is just going to be God-awful, especially to the abutters of the property. Tabor has gone 100 years without night games and people are asking why they can’t go another 100 years.”

In a preliminary letter to be sent to residents by Tabor Headmaster Jay Stroud, however, the school said it does not believe there will be serious consequences of using crumb rubber or installing the light towers.

On the subject of crumb rubber, Stroud’s first point is to assure residents that crumb rubber is a chemically inert, clean, non-toxic product of responsible recycling. According to Stroud, research done by the school concludes that it cannot float or be blown away. He says the crumb rubber product, along with a mixture of sand, is protected by an undersurface of turf, meaning it will not seep out.

Though Stroud acknowledges the studies on the crumb rubber properties, he explains many of the problematic fields described were some of the first to be made. States such as New Jersey have closed such fields and gradually reopened them. Stroud also cites studies by the EPA, New York State, and the CDC distinguishing the safety of newer fields compared to old ones.

Stroud’s letter also addresses the light towers, immediately saying that regular night games are not part of the athletic routine. He says only a limited number of evening games will be played a year, and the purpose of these lights is to give the school flexibility. Stroud says the lights will not change the outline of their athletic programs nor will regular night games ever be a part of the routine.

He also says the lights’ height enables only the field to be illuminated. According to Stroud, lighting engineers have reported that the light radiating beyond the actual field surface will be less prevalent in the neighborhood of the football field than the street lights. The height enables the lights to focus directly on the area of the field.

Concluding his letter, Stroud says he believes the state-of-the-art playing fields will be of great benefit for the town and the students of Tabor.

In order to move forward with the construction Tabor will have to go to the Zoning Board of Appeals.  A date has not been set for Tabor to go in front of the board.

We will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.

To see the full content of Headmaster Jay Stroud’s letter to Marion residents, see the PDF below.