Iconic Stratford ballpark site ready for redevelopment after 5-year toxic waste cleanup
Raybestos Memorial Field hosted the world-champion Brakettes softball team, but it also concealed acres of toxic waste. Now the site is ready for redevelopment after a five-year clean-up.
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Stratford residents are getting a look at the old Raybestos Memorial Field after a five-year clean-up.
The ballpark hosted the world-champion Brakettes softball team, but it also sat on top of acres of toxic waste from nearby Raymark Industries.
Now the site is finally ready to be redeveloped.
“THEY HAD NO IDEA”
Those who grew up in Stratford before the 1980s probably spent a lot of nights at Raybestos Field. But those 12,000 fans were sitting right above a dangerous secret.
“They had no idea until the late '70s, early '80s,” said Jim DiLorenzo, a remediation project manager with the Environmental Protection Agency. “It was a dumping ground for the former Raybestos plant, so they dumped a bunch of contamination here, made it level and then the ball field was built on top of it.”
Raybestos got its name from the asbestos it used in brake pads. The company re-branded as Raymark when asbestos lawsuits piled up, eventually shutting down its Stratford facility in 1989.
CLEAN-UP COMPLETE
On Wednesday evening, residents finally got a chance to see the cleaned-up site at a community open house. Many want to know what will happen to it now.
“We expect this to be commercial development. We don’t know what yet, but now it goes on the market and we’re going to see,” said Mayor David Chess. “My dream is to attract high-tech manufacturing. That’s where I'd like to see. And so, we’re working with our high-tech – Sikorsky and Ashcroft and Straton Industries – to see. What do they need to support them?”
About a third of the 11-acre site can house new construction, DiLorenzo said. The rest contains capped waste material and can only be covered with grass or a parking lot.
MORE WORK TO DO
Even though the old ball field is finally cleaned up, it will take several more years to remediate every Raymark site. The brake pad manufacturer dumped waste all over Stratford.
The massive clean-up effort began three decades ago when Raymark became a federal Superfund site.
“In 1994, then-Sen. Joe Lieberman and I toured the original facility and the ballpark location and we had HAZMAT suits on,” recalled Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-New Haven).
The company's former factory was torn down in the early 2000s and replaced with a shopping center.
The EPA expects to complete two more phases next year, including the Housatonic Boat Club site by Shakespeare Park.
“We’re making that into a galley and museum with a concession,” Chess said. “And we hope to have a performance – outdoor performance – in the back.”
PIECE OF HISTORY SAVED
Not all of Raybestos Memorial Field is gone. A piece of it will resurface at another site.
“We’re going to restore the former scoreboard through the Historic Preservation Act,” DiLorenzo said.
The town plans to place the old scoreboard at the Morgan Francis Property on East Broadway and Ferry Blvd., which will be home to a new soccer complex once it’s cleaned up.
The EPA said all the old Raymark sites should be remediated by the early 2030s.
