School District OKs Study Into Football Field Lights

The Board of Education is going ahead with a feasibility study to determine what the potential costs and impacts would be to install lights at the Morristown High School football field.

Only two BOE members, Angela Rieck and Peter Gallerstein, were not in favor of the $7,750 study, citing issues of both quality-of-life in that area of town, and better uses of the money elsewhere in the Morris School District.

Gallerstein had also been opposed to the idea of lights on the new $1 million turf field when it was first discussed in January.

"I don't live in the neighborhood. But, if I did, I would have these concerns," he said at Monday's meeting. "The lights would affect everyone in the neighborhood."

Rieck noted the feasibility study is being approved and conducted without first seeking the opinions of the community it could affect.

"We have to speak to the community, to public officials," Gallerstein said. "We're taking a step into someone's backyard–literally."

Other members of the board, however, saw lights on the field as a plus for the community.

"That turf field is a terrific community resource," board member Lisa Pollack said. "It makes sense to do a feasibility study first. The community would have an interest in [the field.]"

Pollack also noted a town ordinance would restrict it from being lit past 10 p.m., and the Morris School District could enact further restrictions, if desired.

Board member Jeannette Thomas cited one restriction she would want to see. "I don't want adult soccer leagues like I see on Martin Luther King Avenue on the Morristown High School football turf," she said.

Board President Lynn Horowitz said she has been "inundated" over the years from parents of children in the sports community in the district regarding getting a lit field in town. "It's always talked about," she said.

The feasibility study is only an examination of the possibility of lights at the football field, school Business Administrator Chris Kelly said, noting such a project would still need to go before the town's Planning Board.

Despite the arguments for the study, and a subsequent field, Gallerstein was not swayed, and even cited the turf field's quality as a potential problem.

"This is a field that will never wear out," he said. "This [usage] is going to spread out."