Residents complete the final step to honor Matt Sharp's intention to preserve a small piece of land in village center as a sports field.
Following select board approval on June 23, an agreement will protect the land as a sports field. The only thing left to do was place the sign Sharp had been keeping since he sold the land to the town. On June 26, Mike Mallory, Linc Merrill, Judy Potter, and Kevin Robinson returned that sign to the location Sharp had selected last year.
Matt Sharp said the way he sold his house, outbuildings, and land to the Town of North Yarmouth was a funny story. Every time he went into the Town Office, the Town Administrative Assistant Scott Seaver (this was before we had a Town Manger) would ask him if he was ready to sell. The Town needed a new Town office, and Seaver was interested in having it located on Matt’s property.
Sometime in 2000, Seaver offered what Matt described as a large sum of money if he would sell. Matt couldn’t say no to the offer. He went home and told his wife they were moving to Phillips as the Town was going to buy them out!
In 1985, Sharp, a North Yarmouth Academy graduate, started the boys’ lacrosse program at Greely High School. This was allegedly due to interest in the sport on the part of his sons and others, or perhaps it was just an interest in keeping them busy. Matt became the lacrosse coach and provided a field at his house for the lacrosse team’s use. It was called Sharp’s Field because that is exactly what it was. A sign was made by the players and erected that officially identified the playing surface as Sharp’s Field in February 1995.
The lacrosse team’s home field became a dilemma for Sharp as the Town moved ahead with their 2001 purchase. Matt had intended to keep the field rather than sell it to the Town so the lacrosse program would continue to play there. The members of the Board of Selectmen convinced Matt that he did not want to drive down from Phillips to mow the playing field. They would maintain it as an athletic field if he transferred ownership to the Town.
That is when the now infamous “handshake” took place between Matt and the Board agreeing to those terms. A handshake and giving your word were a common practice at that time although it seems to have fallen out of favor with some folks today. The field was transferred to the Town who has kept it as a playing field as agreed.
Since the Town took possession of Sharp’s Field, the Greely lacrosse team has continued to call it home. Numerous groups have used it for other sporting events as well. It has become a desirable open space in a quickly growing village center.
There have been efforts over time by some residents to convert Sharp’s Field into housing. This was particularly true in 2014, but the Town held a referendum and voted overwhelmingly to keep the property permanently open as a playing field.
There was another attempt to build housing there in late 2020 and early 2021. Matt Sharp warned the residents of this and worked with them to “Save Sharp’s Field.” The residents voted in the June 2021 Town Meeting to place an easement on Sharp’s Field to thwart any further attempts to develop it. The Select Board voted on June 23, 2022 to place restrictions on the property and file that legal document in the Cumberland County Registry of Deeds. An entity to oversee the restrictions is still being discussed.
A large group of North Yarmouth residents has worked for eight years fighting each of these development efforts and to protect what Matt Sharp gave the Town when he deeded us his field in 2001. Matt Sharp stood with us shoulder to shoulder in the fray. Last summer, Matt brought the original 1995 Sharps’s Field sign to abutter Alicia Dostilio. He showed her where he wanted it placed back on the property when the protection process was complete.
Unfortunately, Matt passed away before that work was done. Three days after the Select Board vote for the restrictive language on the property, residents were pleased to be able to return that sign to its rightful place at Sharp’s Field.
Thanks, Matt Sharp, for your commitment to this Town over many, many years. Thanks for the wonderful resource of this playing field. Thanks for being our friend.