The grass and track have been stripped off of Hurrell Field in Glen Ridge, replaced by piles of dirt and big yellow earth-moving machines. The borough is installing a new playing field of natural grass along with a new track -- total cost of $620,622 -- both of which are slated for use in September. Hurrell is home to the Glen Ridge High School football, baseball and track.
Two efforts to replace real grass with artificial turf in Glen Ridge failed several years ago. A re-seeded Carteret Park has been a relative success. The seed-grown grass, sowed in a sand substrate following recommendations from field experts at Rutgers, did create a lush green surface. But the field still drains poorly at its eastern end, and has a large bald spot in the middle.
"It's grass. It's not turf. It's somewhat of a success," says Kit Schackner, who was a vocal opponent of artificial turf in 2007. "It's certainly a victory for grass and the grass movement and people in the neighborhood who use it as a park." But she still think the field is overplayed, especially by lacrosse teams. "They play in the rain," she says. "And you know how much rain we've had."
Schackner also objects to plans to sod Hurrell, rather than use grass seed and sand. Sod won't hold up to athletic use, she says. "I want to know why they're using sod, knowing it will fail."
But Glen Ridge Recreation Director Jim Cowan says there isn't time to grow grass at Hurrell by seed. "In a perfect world, if we could take that offline for the entire fall, we'd go with seed," Cowan acknowledged. "But we don't have time to go with seed."
Cowan also acknowledged that, with a spring as wet as the past one, he's had to allow kids onto the field in wet conditions. "I'm sure at some point this spring, we've had kids playing lacrosse in the rain, kids playing soccer in the rain, kids playing baseball in the rain."
"It's always going to be a struggle," he said. "The rain has been unbelievable."
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Comments (5)
Field 'pattern baldness'.. very sad. It's roots are genetic and there is no known cure. The 'Scotts' company has poured billions into research but has not found any effective treament to date.
"sod won't hold up to athletic use"
I wish someone had told Joe D that before he spent $1 million plus on the fields at Brookdale. The sod there is now a mess, with nasty holes that go down to the gravel underneath and are very good for spraining ankles. And then there are these funky plastic tumbleweeds that roll around the field. These are from the matting that they use to hold the sod together for planting that is revealed once the sod breaks down. But no one could see this coming, since Brookdale gets so little traffic.
There has been oh so much rain lately... everything is a puddle to me. But soon it will get hot again. It's best to redo the field if it is needed eventually.
If you rebuild it, they will come.
I remember when the town renovated Carteret, the field was shut down in the fall so it would be ready for the spring. If we needed Hurrell for the fall, I'm wondering why we didn't plan ahead and shut it down in the spring? Certainly, next year when Hurrell is once again unplayable because the sod failed, we should advocate for starting the field renovation earlier so that it can be done according to the Rutgers plan.