Booster club dissolves, snack shack to come down

The Harpswell Booster Club has dissolved, and with no boosters to staff it, the town plans to demolish the snack shack at Trufant-Summerton Athletic Field.

The club will donate the remainder of its funds, $2,305.78, to the Harpswell Recreation Department, along with a riding mower for field maintenance. The town will earmark the funds for baseball, softball and T-ball.

In recent years, “it has become harder and harder to find parent volunteers” to staff the snack shack during games, according to an April 12 letter from Harpswell Recreation Director Gina Caldwell to the Board of Selectmen.

Ararat Youth Baseball now runs the baseball program for ages 9-12 in the four towns of Maine School Administrative District 75.

“This change in leadership means a more central program with all teams being made up of kids from varying towns, not just the town they live in,” Caldwell said in the letter. “This also doesn’t help us recruit or retain parent volunteers to work in the snack shack.”

Caldwell will return to the select board with a request to solicit bids for removal of the snack shack. “The building itself is over 20 years old and starting to break down,” she said. “It would be a significant investment to rehab the building to have it sit unused.”

The select board accepted the club’s donations April 14. Board Chair Kevin Johnson said that he and a friend built the snack shack “well over 20” years ago.