Bernardsville Environmental Commission Critiques Athletic Fields Plan

The Bernardsville Borough Environmental Commission has sent a letter to Somerset Hills school officials urging that the board consider an alternative plan for the proposed expansion of the lower fields at Bernards High School that the commission says would have less of an environmental impact than those on the table.

In passing along the information from a March 13 discussion by the Environmental Commission, the letter said that commission members feel that the plan as it now has been presented "is not a satisfactory final plan."

The letter also said the commission has "serious concerns" about the question of permits from regulating agencies such as the state Department of Environmental Protection, regarding wetland issues. The letter also expressed scepticism about whether no additional documentation or permits would be required from the DEP, as had been mentioned at previous meetings.

The commission asked for tangible proof that the permits are in hand, or that the regulatory agency had confirmed, in writing, that no additional permits were required for the project to proceed.

Somerset Hills Schools Superintendent Peter Miller said on Tuesday that the Board of Education's facilities and operations committee would be discussing the proposed high school field in additions to other topics on Tuesday evening.

But he added he was not sure if the Environmental Commission's letter would be discussed at the committee's meeting.

However, Miller said the facilities and operations committee would be making a report to the full Board of Education at next week’s meeting, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Wed., March 27, at Bernards High School.

The board, sometimes at meetings with the Bernardsville Borough Council, has discussed plans to expand a lower field complex beyond the existing turf field at the high school.

The board committed on Feb. 5 to investigating that field expansion, which would provide a grass multi-purpose field by existing baseball and softball fields on the high school property, Board President Donna Coons said on Wednesday.

Using fill that could be donated by a new Chase Bank branch under construction on Route 202, along with modifications at a later meeting in February that including the number of trees that would be reduced for the project, the anticipated cost for the project had been cut to about $50,000, Schools Business Administrator Nancy Hunter said in February.