Will it be a skatepark or a T-ball field? Two Newport councilors have submitted a plan.

NEWPORT – The question of whether a basketball court and skatepark should be built at the Abbruzzi Sports Complex or not could be resolved at the upcoming City Council meeting on Wednesday.

Council members Lynn Underwood Ceglie and Jamie Bova have introduced a resolution calling for the court and skateboard facility to be built where the Theodore Michaud Field for T-ball is now.

This has been a point of controversy in past months.

Newport Little League supporters and some North End residents want to keep the T-ball field where it is. They have presented a petition to the City Council asking to do just that. The adjacent regular Little League baseball diamond and concession stand at the complex would remain untouched.

Friends of Newport Skatepark supporters and some North End residents have been making their case to build a skatepark there, for which they would privately conduct the necessary fundraising. They have canvassed the North End neighborhood and have presented a petition in favor of the skatepark.

The skatepark supporters were surprised by the opposition because the City Council had already decided to move Michaud Field when the council members voted unanimously to accept in September 2020 a $100,000 state Department of Environmental Management grant to construct a basketball court at the Abbruzzi Sports Complex.

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If a basketball court is built there, there is no room for the T-ball field. But there would still be room for a skatepark.

“The city wholeheartedly supports the programs of the Newport Little League and the city administration and staff will find the best location for a new Theodore Michaud T­ ball field to accommodate our youngest children interested playing T-ball,” the Ceglie-Bova resolution says.

Ceglie said last month that she and others were investigating moving the field to nearby Miantonomi Park, so the two Little League fields are not too far apart.

The Aquidneck Land Trust bought a land conservation easement for all of Miantonomi Park in 2006 so it could be preserved. There have been discussions with the Land Trust about what could be placed there, Ceglie has said.

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Scott Wheeler, the city's superintendent of parks, grounds and forestry, told the council in September 2020, when the DEM grant was accepted, that he met with Little League officials at Murphy Field in the southern end of the city. They all agreed the current unused softball field there could be converted to a Little League T-ball field, he said.

City officials initially proposed moving the T-ball field to Braga Park, but found Murphy Field had more support than Braga in the community.

“The Newport City Council will consult with the Michaud family to determine the best way to continue to honor the memory of Theodore Michaud and all that he did for the city's youth,” says the resolution before the council now.