District Updates Public on Various Field Issues

Another school board meeting, another smattering of fields-related controversies.

Resident Tom Kossoff again took the floor Monday night to raise objections and questions related to the cleanup of the high school fields that were heavily damaged during Hurricane Katrina.

Kossoff, a neighbor on Heermance Place, again noted he believed there was a discrepancy that the district's report on fields cleanup in 1999 after Floyd was not an apples-to-apples comparision with that of Irene.

, a point he contrasted with Irene, which will bring a claim of over $115,000 in repairs. Kossoff previously brought archives that projected a $30,000 cleanup to the then-grass fields. The vocal neighbor said if the superintendent was conflating data related to repairing a track in 1999, he was being "disengenuous." 

"It did include damage to the track," Fishbein said in response. "There was an insurance claim for Floyd for the track, which includes the majority of the expenses; $300,000." He added that there was damage to various track aspects as well as the fields. "All those expenses were the Floyd damage," he said.

Fishbein also stated that the sports groups will still be paying for a portion of the lights, as they'd promised. The district will be paying for the lease cost with sport groups reimbursing a portion at the end of the year, according to the superintendent. The sport groups paid the first year of the five-year lease in full last year, but after the Ridgewood Baseball Soccer Association said they would not commit if they didn't receive the amount of time they felt they needed under the new lights.

The superintendent, in response to Kossoff, acknolwedged a further cleaning of the non-playing-surface area of the fields will be needed.

He also reported G-Max test ratings at Stadium Field were in the 120 range, roughly where they were after the storms in spring. A rating between 120 and 150 is preferred; anything over 200 is considered dangerous.