The new baseball field next to the school district office will be ready a year earlier than expected, thanks to the initiative of a town recreational league.

The Bedford Junior Bulldogs Football and Spirit Association is donating $35,000 toward the full cost of laying sod on the new field. The School Board accepted the donation at a special meeting June 4. Jim Skillings, president of the Junior Bulldogs and vice president Steve Beals presented the board with the proposal.

Sodding the field will make it available earlier, avoiding scheduling conflicts and alleviating the demand for space.

The sod will cost about $45,000 overall, with the difference made up from a $5,000 donation from the Bedford Soccer League and another $5,000 from the school district. The school contribution is what it would have spent on hydroseeding the field.

“To get sod for $5,000 from a school district perspective is a fabulous deal,” said School Board Chairman David Sacks.

Some School Board members said they initially had been concerned that the school district would have to front some of the money for the sod and be paid back later by the Junior Bulldogs. They said it would have set a precedent and encouraged other leagues to come forward with projects of their own, asking the school district for funding. But some 11th-hour fundraising by the Junior Bulldogs ultimately made that unnecessary.

School officials thanked the Junior Bulldogs for their initiative and generosity, touting the donation as a prime example of a good partnership between public and private groups. School Board member Bob Donahue said the Junior Bulldogs donation was a win-win for everyone.

“I believe very strongly that donations to the school are the lifeblood,” Donahue said. “I’m all in favor of it.”

At stake was when the field would be available.

Hydro-seeding it, the original plan of the school district, would have meant that it would remain unused for at least a year until it set.

The filed was scheduled to be hydroseeded the first week of June, which is why Sacks called a special meeting to consider the Junior Bulldogs proposal.

With sod it will take only eight weeks for the field to be ready. The district is planning to have the field sodded the middle of June, making it fully set for use by the middle of August.

Another recreational league, Bedford Babe Ruth Baseball, is raising about $200,000 for lights and other improvements to the field. When baseball teams are not on the field in the spring, some fall sport such as football and soccer expect to use it.

The field will be practice space for the Junior Bulldogs, which will play its games at the high school field and Preston Field, said Skillings, adding his group saw the donation as an opportunity to best use the field and benefit the community.

The school district and the Junior Bulldogs have a memorandum of understanding, which spells out the details of how the field will be sodded. One thing the MOU does not address is the scheduling the field for various fall sports. According to a separate MOU between the town and the school district, that process is handled through the town Parks and Recreation Department.