The Rye City Council has postponed a planned presentation by city staff on an increasingly contentious proposal to put synthetic turf on Nursery Field until next month.
At the same time, the council voted to push off any decision related to the project until at least March 20, extending a pause that was set to expire on Feb. 28.
At the Wednesday council meeting, Democratic Councilwoman Jamie Jensen made a motion to move the planned presentation back a week – to March 6 – due to a scheduling conflict for city staff, and extend the pause, which includes a restriction on any decision-making or financial allocations related to the proposal.
The presentation had initially been teed up for the Feb. 28 City Council meeting. City Manager Greg Usry and City Engineer Ryan Coyne are expected to lead the presentation.
Jensen, who took office in January, said she wanted to ensure adequate time between the presentation and the end of the planned pause, so the community and council could digest the information.
“I’ve gotten some lovely letters on both sides of this conversation in the last couple of days and they’ve been very thoughtful … I want the community on both sides to be able to come back after we have our dialogue in front of all of you to be able to vet,” she said.
The motion passed 4-1, with Mayor Josh Cohn the lone dissenting vote. Deputy Mayor Julie Souza, a Democrat, and Councilman Keith Cunningham, a Republican, were absent.
At the center of the Nursery Field saga is a proposal to replace the existing grass playing surface at the city-owned site on Milton Road with synthetic turf for area sports teams. Lack of field space has been an ongoing concern in Rye for years.
The project seemed ready to move forward last year until the November election ushered in a new council majority. That newly shaped City Council then voted on Jan. 10 to temporarily hold off spending any additional money on design and studies for new council members to get up to speed.
The majority of the council, which has supported pausing the project, points to the city’s inability to begin any construction – if it were to move forward with the replacement of the field – until August, because of legislation that governs the property. The city purchased Nursery Field in 2002.
Cohn and Souza, both supportive of moving the project forward last year, have been critical of the delays.