A major rebuild of the 23-year-old playground, ballfield and basketball courts at Eliot Elementary School will take a major investment: $3.5 million.
Eliot, one of three projects under review by the Community Preservation Committee for Fiscal Year 2027, is a joint request from Needham Parks & Forestry and the Park & Recreation Department.
“It is a big number, but I think of decades of play and gatherings — I mean, when my kids were babies I used to walk them up to Eliot, and it’s the same Eliot,” said Ed Olsen, superintendent of Parks & Forestry. “My daughter’s 17 years old now, my son’s 16, so these investments stick around a long time.”
Project plans encompass the playground, ballfield and basketball court, and include the addition of paved walkways.
Located at the rear of Eliot Elementary School on 135 Wellesley Ave. and Crane Street, the play-space is an 8-acre plot shared by 450 Eliot students, Needham Baseball and Softball, the Park & Recreation Summer Camp, Needham Extended Day Program and neighborhood families.
Originally built in 1956, the recreational area — including the field and playground structure — was rebuilt in 2003. According to director for Park & Recreation Stacey Mulroy, plans for a renovation of the play area have sat in the five-year Athletic Facilities Capital Plan for “at least five years.”
Olsen and Mulroy hope to make those plans a reality by the end of this summer. The renovated play area would feature a synthetic turf field, a new basketball court and an ADA-accessible, safety-conscious playground directly connected to aqueduct trails.
Older playground equipment would be removed, wood-fiber surfaces replaced with poured-in-place rubber, shade structures added and perimeter fencing installed. New playground elements would include climbing equipment, single- and multi-user spinning equipment, picnic tables and benches. Design teams plan to keep roughly half of the existing equipment.
Plans for the new playground emphasize inclusivity, and would include more sensory areas. The Commission on Disabilities has not yet reviewed project designs, but Olsen reassured CPC members that plans would be shared with them if the project moves forward.
Mulroy noted that the project’s biggest cost-driver, the poured-in-place surface, is now industry-standard for its accessibility and high shock absorbency.
“It’s still a niche industry,” Mulroy said. “So basically, companies that do poured-in-place send a crew from town to town to town to town just to do these, and you have to have somebody generally positioned in there overnight, because it takes 24 hours to cure.”
Since receiving just under $70,000 from the CPC for design funds in FY26, Olsen and Mulroy have been doing their best to fast-track the planning process. In 2025, they entered into a contract with engineering firm Tighe & Bond, created a project-steering committee, organized four meetings between July and September, hosted neighborhood meetings, contacted user groups and schools, and began working with playground design specialist O’Brien & Sons (representing Landscape Structures).
“Time (is) of the essence with this project,” Olsen noted in a presentation to the CPC. “When our capital and operating budget submissions are due, it’s really quick into the fiscal year — so we have to boogie.”
To finish what they’ve started, the project leaders are looking to CPC once again for funding.
CPC funds, sourced from voter-approved local taxes added to property tax bills and partly matched by state funds, are intended for community projects. Past projects have included the restoration of Town Hall, improvements to Park & Rec facilities and support for Needham Housing Authority. Thirty percent of CPC funds is set aside for open space/recreation, historic preservation and community housing (10% each). The remaining funds can be invested in various projects — including, but not limited to, the acquisition, creation, preservation and restoration of outdoor recreational facilities.
“Refurbishing the school playground preserves and improves existing recreational land, aligns with the Town’s priority to maintain high-quality community resources, and promotes outdoor activity, social connection, and healthy development for children and families,” the project application states. “The project advances the Plan’s emphasis on rehabilitating aging recreational infrastructure, improving accessibility in compliance with ADA standards and ensuring that public spaces remain vibrant, functional and welcoming for current and future generations of Needham residents.”
Recognizing that this is “a big ask and a lot of money,” Olsen noted that the project could be broken into phases, with playground and hardscaping improvements in this summer, and ball field renovations in the summer of 2027. Phase one would cost an estimated $1,726,284, and phase two an estimated $1,722,816 — though the second half of phased projects typically increases in cost, Olsen said.
“I don’t want to say [phasing] is a better idea, but I think to do the field, playground and all the hardscaping in a summer would be one heck of a blockbuster summer-slammer,” said Olsen. “And the school was pretty adamant to say, ‘We want to be back in school and outside by the time school opens.’”
When asked, Olsen said other materials could be substituted to make the project cheaper. Asphalt for concrete and natural grass for synthetic turf would bring the price down if necessary.
Synthetic turf is not eligible for CPC funds regardless, and is not a part of the $3 million ask, leaving the project with an additional $468,000 need — a balance, Mulroy said, they are hoping the town can cover.
CPC will present the Eliot project in a public meeting in March, and then make a decision about which projects are being awarded. If Eliot receives funding from the CPC, it will then go to vote in town meeting.
“Playgrounds are my passion, and the faster we can get as many as possible and as quickly as possible to be more inclusive, and get that poured-in-place in more and more of our playgrounds, and get kids up into the playgrounds — that’s better for everybody,” said Mulroy.
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