As Flint Park Floods, New Field Stays Dry

Official Opening Will Be End of Summer

by Judy Silberstein

In the wake of a summer-style storm, parts of Flint Park resembled a jungle lake on May 27.

(May 29, 2008) An intense storm on Tuesday, May 27, brought thunder, lightning and hail along with pouring rain that flooded large swaths of Larchmont’s Flint Park. One section that stayed dry, however, was the new artificial turf field that is being installed along the park’s border with the Hommocks.

At around 7:30 pm, after more than two hours of rain, no water was visible on the bright green turf, even though it was continuing to precipitate and the surrounding natural grass was sodden or under many inches of water. Built on one of the highest sections of the park, the field sits atop several additional layers of drainage and foundation that allowed it to remain free of puddles on Tuesday.

Even as puddles formed in the higher ground where Mamaroneck Town is replacing a drainage pipe, the new artificial turf field in Flint Park appeared dry.

The field is “just about ready” and there may be opportunities for some practices in the near future, said Mayor Liz Feld, but the official opening is not until the end of the summer. That will allow for completion of the many other construction and landscaping projects going on around the field.

The natural grass fields undergoing renovations at Flint Park are almost ready for seeding. Tuesday's storm flooded one corner of those fields.

On one side of the new turf field, Larchmont Village is altering the road that runs back to the environmental area and is finishing renovations to the grass ball fields. On the other side, the Town of Mamaroneck is installing massive new drain pipes from the Hommocks ice rink to Little Harbor Sound. “If you look at the construction in the entire area, it’s probably not a safe place to have kids and spectators,” noted Mamaroneck Town Manager Steve Altieri. He said the pipe project is on schedule for completion in July, but “construction goes faster if you don’t have to provide extraordinary means to protect the site to allow for use of the fields.”

Rain is unlikely to disturb the denizens of this new bird house installed at the back of the park.

One “major construction” project is now complete and impervious to the weather: the building and installation of new bird houses in the environmental area. There are now several pole-mounted boxes sized for “single family homes” and another for “apartment dwellers” like purple martins. There is also a mounted platform meant to attract nesting ospreys.

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