The dedication of the Paul Spadoni baseball field in Plainville last week was yet another astonishing but unsurprising chapter in the history of volunteerism in the town.

With a small tax base and cash-strapped town government, Plainville often has to be creative when it comes to building public facilities.

The baseball field was built with some town funds, but also a heavy dose of donated money and volunteer labor, supplies and equipment.

And the town's youth sports enthusiasts are just getting started.

Eventually the diamond will be part of a complex known as the Field of Dreams, including facilities for soccer, softball, basketball, and baseball. The dream started off with a desire to replace a Babe Ruth League field that had become the lot where a new school was built.

It expanded into a vision of a complete youth sports complex.

But Plainville is always strapped for cash, so the town folks got together and built their own field.

We have heard this story before.

Plainville residents have built their senior citizens center and town swimming pool largely with donated hands and materials.

Where else do taxpayers build a senior center with their own hands, the town administrator acting like a general contractor and doing a lot of the nail-pounding himself?

But, that is just the way things are done in Plainville.

Selectwoman Andrea Soucy said townspeople are like folks in the old days when neighbors got together for barn raisings to help friends in need.

"That's typical of the way we do things," she said. "We have a real, real small-town mentality."

Not running A push by Mayor Kevin Dumas to get an extension so Fire Chief Ronald Churchill can put off retirement when he turns 65 should end long-running speculation that Churchill was thinking of running for mayor against Dumas.

In the lion's den

A lot of national Democrats avoid going on Fox News talk shows, claiming the network is a de facto Republican organization, but U.S. Rep. Barney Frank is not one of them.

Frank, D-Newton, returned to the lion's den this week as he appeared on the "O'Reilly Factor" to discuss the withholding of prisoner abuse photos from Iraq, anti-gay marriage legislation and other issues.

The appearance comes on the heels of an infamous shouting match between the two several weeks ago over the financial meltdown.

A clip of the confrontation became a hit on the Internet.

The more recent debate was a little more sedate.

No love lost

When legislative leaders held a press conference to trumpet a pension reform bill adopted on Beacon Hill, Senate President Therese Murray read a long list of people responsible for the reform.

Standing right beside her was Gov. Deval Patrick, who first proposed the reforms.

Yet Murray never mentioned the governor, for whom she makes no attempt to hide her contempt.

So when many of the same leaders called a press conference to announce an agreement on an ethics reform bill, Patrick skipped the event, assuring Murray could not embarrass him again.

JIM HAND covers politics for The Sun Chronicle. His commentaries appear in this space on Saturdays. He can be reached at 508-236-0399 or at jhand@thesunchronicle.com.