Music OK’d at Six Remaining Evening Flag Football Games at Reading Field

Music will play at the six remaining Saturday evening flag football games at Hollingsworth Field at Birch Meadow.

By a 3-2 vote, the Board of Selectmen granted the league a waiver of the board’s amplified sound rules. The board approved the rules this past February.

Three of the four residents who spoke at Tuesday’s hearing questioned the need for music at all the games for students in kindergarten through grade six and the amount of sound that emanates from the Birch Meadow fields, from sports to the RMHS marching band.  Another resident emailed that amplified sound on seven Saturday evenings is “intrusive on the neighbors and setting a bad precedent.”

Under the selectmen’s rules, “The use of amplified sound is not intended to be a routine for recurring events, such as play by play announcements for sporting events and other repeated use of music and amplified sound.”

The Board of Selectmen can grant a variance of that rule after a hearing.

Selectmen Stephen Goldy, John Arena and James Bonazoli voted in favor of the variance; Richard Schubert and Ben Tafoya voted against it.

Jack Downing from Whittier Road and Robert Kiley from Tennyson Circle, both area residents and Mary Ellen O’Neil and, by email, Bob Kaminer, objected to granting the variance.

John Halsey, who said he was not an abutter to the field, urged the selectmen exempt the league from the rule.  Today’s players enjoy the “festive nature” of the announcing, with music, he said. The league meets for only six to eight Saturdays, he said.

No complaints were reported from amplified sound at the league’s kickoff game, Carl McFadden, one of the three league founders, told the selectmen. They created the league, he said, because of the concussions that can result from contact football.

Under the amplified sound rules, the Recreation Committee can grant an organization a permit for amplified sound -- once -- which the committee did.

The league will be successful with or without music, McFadden said.

Using a sound system just for announcements, and not music, wouldn’t be worth the money, league organizer Jim Murphy said when the issue came to the selectmen last week.

As part of the variance, the board voted that town Recreation Administrator John Feudo decide on where the sound speakers should be placed, oriented toward the press box and away from abutting homes.

The remaining flag football games are scheduled from 4 to 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 29; Oct. 6, 13 and 27; and Nov. 3 and 10.