Concord City Council To Consider $1.2M To Create Final Design And Permitting For Updated Memorial Field

CONCORD, NH — On Tuesday, the Concord City Council will consider spending $1.2 million on design and permitting a revamped Memorial Field.

The cost for design and permitting will be split with SAU 8, the Concord School District, which has already approved its half of $600,000.

For more than three years, city and school officials have discussed upgrading the complex after several focus group meetings, as well as mounting repair costs for the track and bleachers that were condemned and later found to be beyond repair, despite being renovated in 2015. The high school softball fields and Little League field also flood in the spring and during heavy summer rainstorms, so they need better drainage. Additional parking was also needed.

Last year, both boards sent members to a study committee to consider moving forward with upgrades and repairs.

Early proposals from the Memorial Field Master Plan process came in at more than $32 million and included a large multi-sport stadium, a new field layout, changing rooms and bathroom facilities, and a concession stand. Officials scrapped those proposals and asked the committee to return with a more reasonable proposal. Steve Largy, the Concord School District athletic director, and David Gill, the city of Concord Parks and Recreation director, worked to focus on the core needs of the upgrade and cut costs.

“We wanted it to be safe, we wanted it to be accessible, ADA compliant, we want the drainage addressed… and you want to have reasonable field conditions — when you fix the drainage, the grass field conditions will be improved,” Gill said. “Athletic field lights for softball, baseball, and football, and, obviously, a new track, which is in poor condition.”

The first phase of the project is estimated to be somewhere around $14 million.

To save on costs, all current field structures would remain as they are. The project would also build an expanded eight-lane track and a multi-sport artificial turf field for football, soccer, lacrosse, and field hockey. The project would also construct new bleachers and renovate the baseball and softball A field with improved bleachers, drainage, fencing, and field lighting. The existing bathrooms and maintenance building would be replaced.

Gill said some parts of the basic proposal are still being ironed out, which is why the design funds are needed. About 15 percent of the project’s cost is contingency fees that may not be needed, he said. Getting it down to something less, with the final approved concept, could lower costs by around $1.5 million, he said.

Phase 2, which could come later and include a concession stand, bathrooms, and changing rooms, would cost around $6 million. That plan, though, is dead on arrival, according to Gill. But it could still consider it in the future.

Some Penacook Residents Balk At Costs

Some Merrimack Valley School District residents have pushed back, saying they shouldn't have to pay for Memorial Field upgrades even though the complex is a city facility.

They point to the school district being the field’s biggest free customer: city use permits from 2025 showed SAU 8 holding nearly 54 percent of all permit hours. But that also means that 46 percent of the usage was not the school district.

Years ago, Merrimack Valley School District taxpayers also funded track repairs without city assistance.

At the same time, Penacook residents ignore the millions of dollars Concord residents have paid during the past two decades to make the village a better place to live, with direct costs to the rest of the city’s taxpayers, but no direct benefit.

Revitalizing the village has cost the city close to $20 million, including all its projects.

The tannery site and village square cost more than $10 million, including buried power lines, bridge repairs, and other efforts to beautify.

A park at the site, which seems barely used, cost more than $3 million.

A new branch library at the new Boys & Girls Club, a few years after the city considered closing the Penacook branch library, cost another $1.3 million.

The city has renovated the Rolfe Park pool twice in 23 years.

The park is also used by baseball and softball teams at Merrimack Valley for free.

The city put Exit 17 in a TIF (tax increment financing district), which passed all the costs of those lost taxes on to the entire city. Like all the Penacook upgrades, this, too, is a good investment, but one that all taxpayers shouldered for the benefit of a few. At the end of the TIF, Merrimack Valley School District residents, not SAU 8 residents, will reap the benefits of that higher land value.

Merrimack Valley School District residents are also a tiny fraction of the city’s population, probably around 10 percent. District residents make up most of Ward 1 and part of Ward 2.

While capital improvement projects aren't allocated by population, the final costs for Merrimack Valley School District residents would be around $600,000 across many years ($12 million split between the school district and city, $6 million, and then one-tenth of that figure).

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