Lights Get OK For Fall Flag Football

The popular, growing youth flag football league that plays its games at Patton Park has been given the OK to set up temporary lights for Saturday night games this fall.

The lights were given a permit that expires after a year, so New England Flag Football officials have to come back in front of the Hamilton Zoning Board of Adjustment again if the lights will be used for the 2014 season.

The ZBA did have some concern about the noise and possible fumes created by the generators on the lights, but any of those concerns will be addressed the Recreation Director, rather than asking league officials to come back before the board when it meets next – after the flag football season has already begun.

“Certainly (the Recreation Director) is going to hear about it if it is not working out,” said Bill Bowler, the ZBA’s chairman, after calling concern about generator noise “a valid one.”

If the flag football season wasn’t scheduled to start before the ZBA was scheduled to meet next on Sept. 11, Bowler said he would have required the football league to provide “hard data” on the noise created by the lights.

Drew Tripp, a member of the league’s board of directors, told the ZBA that he can check with another location where similar lights are used for athletic games to see the level of noise.

John Rodenhizer, a ZBA member, suggested that Patton Park should be “emission-free” since Hamilton is a Green Community and expressed concern about the safety of youth flag football players “huffing and puffing” near the exhaust from the generators.

ZBA member Kim Dietel said paperwork provided to the board from the light manufacturer noted that the lights are designed to be used for athletic events. Tripp said the league would not want to use lights that may harm the players.

Bowler suggested the football league work out an agreement with the Board of Selectmen about how the lights are stored at the park.

The request to put up four temporary lights came from the league so that the Saturday evening game schedule can be more evenly spread out. Last year, when the league debuted, six fields were played at a time before sunset and two games were at a time after dark under the permanent lights on the Little League field. This year, no more than four games were be played at one time, Tripp said. So far, 315 children have registered for the league, up slightly from last year’s 302 participants, Tripp said. The league runs through mid-November.