Politics & Government

Turf Field Will Not Go to Voters as Council OKs $1.2M

Councilmen, residents assail 4-2 vote on Upper Polo Grounds field, which was rejected by voters last year.

By Mike Deak

The Bernardsville Borough Council has approved spending $1.2 million to install artificial turf at the Upper Polo Grounds, and no referendum will be held to ask voters whether to take the money from the borough’s open space funds.

Unless there is litigation, the council’s 4-2 vote on Monday evening resolves an emotional and controversial issue that roiled the borough for years.

By a 2-to-1 margin last November, borough voters defeated a non-binding referendum to fund the field project.

The artificial turf will be installed over an existing grass field on borough-owned property off Seney Drive.

A motion to put a referendum before voters in November that would take $1.2 million from open space funds failed for lack of a second at Monday’s meeting. That means the borough will issue $1.142 million in bonds for the project.

The decision came after residents, both for and against the project, made their arguments to the council and heated words were exchanged between Mayor Lee Honecker and Councilman Joseph Rossi.

Honecker said that the $1.2 million proposal contained a lot of “bells and whistles” and that the recreation committee had stated that the artificial turf could be installed for $800,000, with the additional features installed later.

But Rossi maintained that those other features — including an access driveway, netting and bleacher pads — should be included from the start.

”Why do we always have to shortchange ourselves?” Rossi said.

”Let’s not do it the Bernardsville way,” Rossi continued. “Let’s do it the right way.”

Honecker implored Rossi to learn how to compromise on issues and reduce the cost of the project, but Rossi refused.

Councilman Craig Lawrence said he was voting against the project because of last year’s referendum result. He said that he found the council’s action, by taking an “end run,” was “insulting.”

Councilman John Farrell cast the other dissenting vote.

Sean Gagnon, president of the Somerset Hills Bulldogs midget football team, said the artificial turf should be installed because players are now subjected to variable field conditions that sometimes requires home games to be played at Ridge High School at an expense to the nonprofit organization.

Anderson Hill Road resident Pat Wry was equally adamant in her opposition to the project. She reminded council members that voters had rejected the project last year that would benefit only slight more than 10 percent of the borough’s population.

Wry said that council was not considering the additional costs of an artificial turf field, including the cost of removal and replacement when it wears out. “$1.2 million ain’t anywhere near enough what it’s going to cost this town,” she said, adding that the project fits “the definition of lunacy.”

Wry likened a referendum on spending open space funds after a decision made to install the turf  to the classic January 1973 National Lampoon cover which featured a pistol pointed at a dog and the tagline, “If you don’t buy this magazine, we’ll kill this dog.”

Somerset Hills Board of Education member Doug Smoot, who has served on the recreation committee and as president of the Somerset Hills Athletic Field Fund, said the field could be improved for less than $1.2 million. He was in favor of the project (“A field needs to be built”) but was against holding a referendum (“Why are we going to do a silly referendum?”)

Rossi said the borough had no time to waste in going ahead with the project. If the artificial turf is installed this winter, then the field could be ready for use in the spring, he said.


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