BANGOR – Husson College President William Beardsley wanted to share the school’s vision for the future. But while neighbors who attended a community meeting on campus Tuesday evening listened politely, most wanted to talk about baseball.

About 15 people from the community attended the session, several of them with questions about the potential noise, light and traffic from the school’s new 3,000-seat baseball stadium, which in addition to serving Husson’s sports programs soon will become home field for the Bangor Lumberjacks, the city’s year-old independent minor league baseball team.

Last year, the team owned by Bangor businessman Charles “Chip” Hutchins played its home games at the nearby University of Maine for lack of a suitable place to play in the city for which it was named.

During several city council and planning board meetings last year, residents of the neighborhoods surrounding the campus expressed concerns about potential impacts the stadium could have on their quality of life. Noise was the top concern, followed closely by lights and traffic.

To that end, Beardsley and several Husson officials discussed the steps the school is taking to minimize impacts. They also encouraged neighbors experiencing noise, light or other adverse effects to call them.

As part of its effort to minimize noise, Husson hired a consultant to design a sound system that will direct noise away from nearby residents. The school planted trees and other vegetation around the stadium to help absorb some of the noise and is working with the state Department of Transportation to determine how to best serve the traffic games are expected to generate. The turning lane on the Broadway approach to Husson Avenue might be lengthened and the light timed to better handle traffic loads and security will be beefed up during games.

“We think we can make it work,” said Jim Doughty, Husson’s dean of education, who also oversees athletics. He acknowledged, however, that the inaugural season likely will bring glitches. “If we run into it, we will deal with it,” he said.

The Lumberjacks are gearing for a 92-game season this year, with half the games on their home field at Husson and the rest on the road, according to Curt Jacey, the Lumberjacks’ general manager. The first home game is set for June 3 and will kick off a weekend of home games that’s close to sold out, he said.

“My goal is to sell out 10 [of the team’s 46] home games,” he said, adding that he also hoped to achieve attendance levels of at least 2,000 fans per game, something he acknowledged proved difficult last year in Orono.

“It’s a tough [12] miles to convince people to drive in the summer,” said Jacey, who has high hopes for the team’s future in Bangor. “We’re here for the long run,” Jacey said. The team has signed a five-year lease with Husson. “I think it’s going to be great for the Broadway [commercial] corridor,” he said.

Before talk turned to the coming baseball season, Beardsley outlined the school’s 110-year history, beginning with its founding in 1898, modest roots in a two-room suite on the second floor of a downtown building, mergers with the Eastern Maine Medical Center School of Nursing in 1982 and the New England School of Communications in 1997.

Today Husson College, which in the late 1960s moved to its current 200-acre site on Bangor’s East Side, is the largest private educator of Maine students, many of them from rural Maine and many the first in their family to pursue college, he said.

Husson now serves an estimated 2,000 students, 1,400 of whom are full-time day students, as well as 150 international students from around the globe. Beardsley expected the total of full-time day students on its Bangor campus to peak next year at 1,500.

According to Beardsley, an important aspect of Husson’s larger mission is to be a leader in the region’s economic vitality and quality of life. He estimated Husson’s economic impact at $50 million a year to the Broadway commercial corridor, the city and the region.

Recent additions include a student center, chapel, art gallery and the Richard E. Dyke Center for Family Business. An arboretum has been established and plans to integrate the nearby forest into the campus are under way.

Though funding continues to be a challenge for the private college, Beardsley said hopes for the future include the addition of an alumni house, student center, new science and health labs, a performing arts center and a new entrance from Griffin Road.