Stoughton Enters Contest For Tech Upgrades, New Baseball Field

STOUGHTON, MA — If all goes well, Stoughton could win major technology upgrades and a new youth baseball field.

Town officials entered T-Mobile's "Hometown Techover Contest," which will award a $3 million grant to one U.S. town for 5G upgrades, a new youth baseball field and a free concert from the national touring country band, Florida Georgia Line, among other perks. Those include:

• A $200,000 T-Mobile Hometown Grant and consulting services from Smart Growth America
• Communication upgrades for first responders
• Technology upgrades to a public space like a library, community center or town square
• A year of free wireless service and home internet, as well as four new 5G phones and a high definition television for 100 residents

Stoughton town officials first became aware of the grant when Select Board member Debra Roberts suggested the town apply for it. The grant application required a video, so Town Manager Robin Grimm asked the recreation department to get creative and spearhead the project. Recreation Director Matthew Cauchon agreed, wanting to help the town do anything it could to win.

"I think upgrading our technology would be really great for the town," Cauchon said. "The video needed to have a small-town feel, so we just spent some time thinking about what makes this town special."

This is where Cauchon and other recreation and town officials got the idea to create a video of Cauchon trying to organize a Fourth of July Parade. But in the video, bad phone service makes planning the event difficult.

"What gives it that small town, New England feel is Stoughton probably runs more community events than a lot of other small towns in the area," Cauchon said. "Tradition is big in Stoughton, so we got the idea that small town traditions don't die down due to bad service. We tried to tie that in."

Check out the video town officials made for the contest below: