After Months of Debate, Fields Use Policy Appears Settled

A debate that's pitted villager against villager and government body against government body since fall of 2010 appears to be over after the village council passed a resolution to approve the revised Fields Use Policy Wednesday night.

The divisive policy, originally drafted by the Fields Use Committee, for much of 2011 and after concessions by both sides, just needs a final stamp of approval from the BOE on Monday. The council had , which the school board supported.

By June, on Fridays and Saturdays, the biggest point of contention with the council and a small, but vocal coalition of neighbors.

The residents, which formed a neighborhood association as a response to the sports facility changes at the high school, have opined that the school board shut them out of the process and made several misstatements over the past few months. They cited quality of life issues from noise, lights and traffic as a result of greater use of the , while also being and what they believe is poor maintenance of the facilities.

Meanwhile, ardent supporters of athletics charged the neighbors were NIMBYs (not-in-my-backyarders) and said utilitarian principles should apply. What's better, they asked: more activity for thousands of village kids or the concerns of a smaller group of neighbors that chose to live near a high school?

Like the school board's decision to drop its request with Stevens Field, the village too made concessions with RHS Stadium Field and Veterans Field. Under this revised policy, both can be lit until 10:00 p.m. for games on weekends, though Stadium Field has a cap of 20 weekend nights during which this can happen and a strict 10 p.m.lights-off deadline. The policy authorizes 15 minutes of additional lighting time at Vets Field to allow for egress, and the village will likely have contractor Musco Lighting install an electronic shutoff system like the ones at Stevens and Stadium Field.

School board member Charlie Reilly said at a Board of Education meeting that he didn’t believe it would be costly for the village to install such a system.

The policy, as approved, will also require that all tailgating parties be held at the Ridgewood High School Parking lot, further from the neighbors on Heermance, Beverly and South Irving Street.

The policy will be reviewed again by the two village government bodies in September 2012, to evaluate what did and did not work.