Borough Likely to Support Paramus Football with Funding for Lights

The Paramus Mayor and Council seem to be on board with flipping the bill for the running of lights at West Brook Middle School’s football field for the next three years.

The borough had regularly covered the cost of renting lights for the games up until two years ago. At that point, the Paramus football team split the cost installing permanent lights with the Spartan Soccer Club, a private soccer club that also uses the field.

According to northjersey.com, the total cost for running the lights is just over $11,000 annually. This year, the football program asked the borough to step in and cover its half of the cost. The three year total would sum up at $17,538.

“This is a responsibility that has been the borough’s all along. A parents group stepped in with a solution and has been covering the cost for the last two years,” said Mayor Richard LaBarbiera. “The obligation that we’ll be paying over the next three years is less than we were paying on a yearly basis when renting lights. Some of the parents finally asked, 'why are we having to flip this bill?', and they’re exactly right.”

Like anything else, the plan to reassume responsibility for payment of running the lights had to be presented in a Mayor and Council meeting.

“I left with the impression that the council was in favor. We are just running it by the business administrator and the town attorney to make sure that it’s done properly," said LaBarbiera.

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