Final Decision on Ballot Question on Upper Polo Field Delayed

It may have been on this week's Borough Council agenda, but a decision on whether voters again will be asked to approve installation of synthetic turf on an existing grass field at the municipal Upper Polo grounds complex has been put off again.

The Borough Council must decide by August whether the non-binding question would be placed on November's ballot. A similar proposal failed to gain voter support last November, but residents have complained about other proposals made since to build other fields in the vicinity of school buildings in downtown Bernardsville.

The $1.5-million Upper Polo field proposal would be funded from funds in the borough's Open Space trust fund, money set aside by a separate tax. About $450,000 to $500,000 is generated each year by the open space tax, said Borough Administrator Ralph Maresca.

"It's community funds," said Borough Councilman Joe Rossi, who has been a supporter of placing a turf field at the Upper Polo property, located near the Bernardsville Pool off Seney Drive.

Rossi said an athletic field is need for borough recreational programs. The Somerset Hills school district, with two schools located near the Upper Polo complex, also uses those fields.

Residents, including Terry Byrne of Chestnut Avenue, asked what had happened to a previously discussed arrangement that would have the Somerset Hills school district funding a turf field on borough-owned property behind the Bernardsville Middle School.

Byrne and other neighbors have expressed concern about the development of a field and related recreational facilities behind their homes. He told Mayor Lee Honecker that he would find a grass field at that location less objectionable, but still would object to lights, bathrooms and other facilities at a field at that location.

Honecker said that the borough had not heard back from the Somerset Hills Board of Education about whether the school board would agree to the Borough Council's terms for allowing the school board to build a turf field on that land.

"There's no time limit for a response," Honecker said.

The Somerset Hills school board also is working on installation a grass multi-purpose field to encompass the existing baseball and softball fields below Bernards High School's turf field.