Bernardsville Turf Field Sessions Outline Referendum Proposal

The second informational meetings on a non-binding referendum ballot question about whether Bernardsville Borough should invest about $1.2 million to install a turf field at the Upper Polo grounds off Seney Drive was held Thursday night, and the third and final session is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 2.

All three informational meetings have been scheduled to be presented by the Bernardsville Recreation Committee, with drawings and a breakdown of how the cost would be financed.

On Monday, Bernardsville Borough Councilman Craig Lawrence outlined plans for paying for the project over an estimated four years, which he said would not impact the borough tax rate.

The proposal outlined included drawing $100,000 this from funds already built up in the existing municipal open space account, which also can be used for recreation, leaving $130,000 to be used for other purposes, he told the council and members of the borough's open space advisory committee at Monday's council meeting.

The remainder of the $500,000 down payment would come from $200,000 in capital improvement funds and $200,000 in retiring debt, Lawrence said.

For the next four years, $50,000 would be drawn from the open space account annually, leaving an estimated $45,000 for other purposes, Lawrence said. The borough's open space tax is a separate account from other municipal finances.

The remainder of the annual $175,000 total to be put toward financing the project would come from the other sources, he said.

Mayor Lee Honecker said at the meeting that initially the proposal had been to finance all of the project from borough open space funds, but borough officials later revised the formula. The open space funding account is financed through a separate open space tax of 2 cents per $100 of assessed property value approved by voters in 1998.

Actual proposal is different than that to be printed on Nov. 6 ballot

The current funding proposal is different than the public question that will be placed on the Nov. 6 ballot, which was pre-approved before the change in funding plans, will ask if voters would approve the initial spending of $200,000 from the open space fund to pay for a turf field estimated to cost between $1,245,000 and $1,411,000, with the balance to be funding by bonding that would be repaid entirely through the open space account.

Since the ballot question is non-binding, meaning that officials would not have to abide by the results, Honecker said the Borough Council would have to decide whether to go ahead and install the turf field anyway if the question is rejected.

"If it's going to happen, why are you going to have a referendum?" asked Sherry Frawley, a member of the open space committee.

Honecker said that the decision is "not pre-ordained right now."

But he noted that the more recent funding formula, devised by borough officials doing "due diligence" to seek an alternative, would not take all of the open space funding, and would not raise taxes.

The field is especially heavily used in fall and spring for school and local organizations, Cheryl Ferrante, borough recreation director. As it stands now, the existing grass field is often muddy during its most heavily used periods, she said.

Information on the proposal is on the borough website. The information presented says that borough officials conducted a study on whether the turf field is needed, and concluded that it is.