The Eldredge Park Coming Back in May Is Bigger Than the One Orleans Almost Settled For
October 22, 2026
October 22, 2026
Last April, the Orleans Select Board was looking at a list of ways to make Eldredge Park smaller. The court lighting would be phased out. The handball court would be removed or put off. All of the work north of the bandshell would come out of the first phase. The goal was to fit a $5.4 million vision into a $3.6 million budget.
Six months later, a fence surrounds the park and the contract inside it covers more than that April list would have allowed. The handball court is back. So is lighting for the tennis and pickleball courts. Neither came back through a bigger tax ask. They came back through a contractor's bid, a resident's phone call and a state grant announced October 7.
As of September 9, 2026, every facility at Eldredge Park is closed to the public for the renovation, including the courts and the playground. According to the Town Manager's report, work started September 8.
The baseball diamond is not being rebuilt. The renovation plan shows Eldredge Field staying as it is, with the new work arranged around it. The timing was set around the Firebirds' season as well. A 2025 filing to the Community Preservation Committee laid out one construction window, September 2026 through May 2027, to keep work away from the June through August game schedule and to let the contractor mobilize only once. The Firebirds' last home games of 2026 were a doubleheader on August 2, and the club's own recap was titled "An Eldredge Farewell." No 2027 home schedule has been published yet.
The first phase was originally sketched at $5.4 million. It included a half-court with tiered bleachers near the diamond, six pickleball courts, a playground with a children's bike track, two tennis courts, a handball court, a full basketball court, accessible paths, water bottle stations and three shade structures.
The Select Board asked for $5 million in Community Preservation Act money. The Community Preservation Committee recommended $3 million, and that is the figure voters approved at the November 2025 Special Town Meeting. An earlier $850,000 in free cash had come from the October 2024 special town meeting. The local site EXIT 89 reported that the vote on Article 9 was 423 to 39.
So in April, the Cape Cod Chronicle reported that the board was weighing cuts like these:
| Option on the table in April 2026 | Estimated savings |
|---|---|
| Phase out light poles and fixtures | $640,000 |
| Remove all work north of the bandshell | $583,200 |
| Reduce shade structures to one, near the playground | $426,000 |
| Reduce poured-in-place rubber surfacing | $214,000 |
| Remove or phase out the handball court | $55,800 |
| Plant 30 percent fewer new trees | $26,000 |
Lighting was the biggest single cut, and $485,000 of it was for the courts. Regan Andreola, senior project manager for Weston & Sampson, the project engineer, told the board that conduit could go in during the first phase so poles could be added later.
By late summer the numbers looked different. The Chronicle reported in September that the contract went to M.C.E. Dirtworks on a $3.71 million bid. That bid covers all of the phase one work plus three alternates: a new handball court, lighting for the pickleball and tennis courts, and a pedestrian walkway.
Two of the items the board had considered dropping in April are back in the contract. Phase one also includes two new tennis courts, six new pickleball courts, a full-length basketball court, a new playground and a network of accessible paths linking all of it.
Three things helped make that possible.
The state's description also mentions tiered spectator seating. That seating was part of the work north of the bandshell that the board considered deferring. The Chronicle's September summary of the awarded contract does not list it, so whether it is part of this round of construction is still open.
The warrant for the Special Town Meeting on Monday, November 16, at 6 p.m. includes Article 3, "Eldredge Park and Playground – PARC Grant Requirements." The figure attached to it is $3,979,702.49, which looks like a large new request. The warrant's own explanation says otherwise. To accept a PARC grant, Town Meeting has to authorize spending equal to the full renovation cost, name where the money comes from, and confirm the land is dedicated to active recreation. The article "does not appropriate any new funds, as funds have previously been appropriated by Town Meeting." The Select Board voted 5-0 to support it.
The article also goes back to how the park began. It cites a deed from Louis W. Eldredge to "the Inhabitants of the Town of Orleans," dated September 20, 1913, which dedicates the land to park and playground use. The grant requires the town to restate a commitment it made 113 years ago.
The Town Manager's September newsletter says future Town Meetings may be asked to add more improvements. Anything the April cuts pushed out of phase one would come back through those votes.
The town has sent court and playground users to Orleans Elementary School, which has posted hours:
Leave extra time to get there. Sewer crews are installing a new force main at Finlay Road and Route 28. Finlay Road is closed to through traffic in both directions for the length of the work, and traffic is detoured onto Eldredge Park Way. The town has told drivers to expect more congestion near the park while both projects are underway.
As for reopening, the Town Manager's report gives a completion target of May 21, 2027. Assistant Town Manager Mark Reil told the Select Board the contract runs to May 22. DeSiervo added that a cooperative winter could bring the finish date earlier. The town says it will post milestones, photos and schedule changes on its Eldredge Park Renovation Project Updates page, and residents can sign up for NotifyMe alerts at orleansma.gov.
Once the fence comes down, the town should have six pickleball courts where it had four, lit courts that could have been left dark, and a handball court that was nearly cut over $55,800.
Projects like the Eldredge Park renovation shape how a part of Orleans feels day to day, and that matters to anyone who owns nearby. If you're wondering how a change like this might affect what your home is worth, the team at Cape Island Estates can talk it through with you calmly, with local detail and no pressure. Get a Free Home Valuation whenever you're ready.
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