Glen Ridge may be known as a jock town, but athletic organizations learned last night that building their fields of dreams -- or should we say, astroturfing them -- won't necessarily be a walk in the park. Hundreds of people showed up at the Ridgewood Avenue auditorium for a public hearing on a $7 million bond measure -- $2 million of which would go to turfing two fields. But before they even started their two hours of impassioned whining, Mayor Carl Bergmanson announced that the issue will be tabled for two weeks to give the council more time to think.
He also announced that it will take four votes of the six-member council to pass the measure. He said he is not allowed a vote.
GRAA trotted out dozens of sports-playing kids in team uniforms bearing signs, but the signs went down after the meeting started. Pro-turfing advocates argued that the current fields are unsafe, unsightly and embarrassing, and that current efforts to sod or seed have not withstood the proliferation of sports competitions in town.
Anti-turfing forces argued that artificial turf is ugly, bad for the environment, uncomfortable for bare feet, exceedingly hot in the summer and unfitting for a town that prides itself on gas lamps and quaintness. But the biggest issue was the added tax burden. There was a recurrent insistence that if the sports parents want their fields turfed, they should raise the money themselves. Several people pointed out that the auditorium where the meeting was held was refurbished with $750,000 of privately-raised money.
By our tally, 20 people spoke against the bond, and 13 people spoke for it.
It was also learned that the GRAA, which gets $250,000 in registration fees, pays nothing to the town on a regular basis for upkeep of the fields.
With the exception of Bergmanson, nobody on the council spoke. A few took notes, but most stared straight ahead with expressions of studied inscrutability.
Surprisingly, a few people took swipes at the public library, which would get $966,650 of capital improvements under the bond proposal. Resident Marc Levinson suggested getting rid of it altogether and entering into a cooperative agreement with nearby towns. Richard Moriarity -- to emphasize the relative importance of the playing fields -- mentioned that he'd been in the library only twice in all his years in town, and one of those times was to get hot cocoa after the Christmas tree lighting.
"Richard Moriarity -- to emphasize the relative importance of the playing fields -- mentioned that he'd been in the library only twice in all his years in town..."
Well, you don't have to physically go to the library to use it these days. I'm not sure about the Glen Ridge library, but for the Bloomfield and Montclair public libraries, you can use some of their resources from home -- you can log on to their subscription databases using your library barcode as a user ID (while keeping another browser window open for Barista, of course). And I recall someone posting here that they were able to log on to the Montclair library's free wireless network by pulling up to the curb in the front of the library during microblast-caused extended power outage over the summer.
I use both the Bloomfield and Montclair libraries, and items borrowed from either library can be returned to either library. Does anyone know if I could do the same with the Glendridge library?