Field Lights Begin 'Burn' Period; Neighbors Upset with School Board's Communication

The long-awaited 'burn' period to test the controversial field lights high above Stadium and Stevens Field began Tuesday and will continue to run intermitenly through March 30, though were upset about what they called a lack of communication from the school board on Monday night at the public meeting.

"We need to burn close to 100 hours before the light reading levels can be done. We anticipate doing the light level readings March 31st, as I said, weather permitting," Superintendent Dan Fishbein said Monday night.

Fishbein added that the district can accelerate the process (originally thought to be far less than 100 hours) by 'burning' the lights from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. at Stadium fields each day (excepting Sunday); Stevens is scheduled to have lights on from 7:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Sunday, March 27 and will go to 9:00 p.m. from Monday through Wednesday. Not every light will be on at all allowable times, but rather will be fashioned to accommodate games and practices.

The schedule has been posted on the district's website and the lights must be tested to assure they meet specifications; the before voting on the school board-approved field lights policy.

"There's a secondary benefit to this," Fishbein said of the 'burn' period. "We'll assist the youth sports teams who can use our facilities at this time [to 9:00 p.m.] and the administration, the A.D. and facility people will be trained on the lights tomorrow [Tuesday]."

But neighbors took objection to being told of the 'burn' testing beginning a mere day after the public notice at the board meeting.

Neighbors say board 'inconsiderate'

"The discussion about the lights and the 'turn on' is the reason it's so hard to be friends," said Tom Kossoff, a Heermance neighbor who has vocally opposed the lights project.

"It was very insenitive and inconsiderate," Kossoff said of what he felt was a lack of proper notice.

Kossoff said the lack of communication was troubling before Board President Michele Lenhard called for Kossoff to finish his comments, which had exceeeded the three-minute time limit. Kossoff had a number of tense back-and-forth exchanges with Lenhard throughout the evening. He had earlier said the board should more closely resemble the village council's public commenting system, in which there's a greater exchange between residents and officials.

"I consider it a slap because the most contentious issue of lights was handled so back-handed with so little respect," Kossoff said. He charged that two members of the board of education are fighting "NIMBY" (not in my back yard) issues in their own respective neighborhoods, but said the board seems cavalier in its own approach to the high school neighbors.

Kossoff did not name the two he accused and none stepped forward to confront the broad accusations.

Lenhard, however, responded that neighbors will be fully notified on the light schedules and procudures, and said the board did nothing wrong. "There is no insensitivity to the community. This is information given to the board of education in a public setting. It could not be given out prior to this [meeting] in any way shape or form to the community. The board had not even been notified," she retorted.

Neighbors Cynthia Fitgerald and Jim Morgan–a leader of the Ridgewood High School Neighborhood Association (RHSNA)–tacked onto comments Kossoff made. Fitzgerald said there was a lack of consideration to neighbors, as well as few answers addressing concerns. "I'd respect you more if you just came out and said, 'you know what, this is going to be a problem for the neighborhood.'"

Morgan said neighbors "don't agree with Michele" that the "sensitivity has been there."

Lenhard said the decision was not made in haste and revisions were made with respect to neighbor concerns.

"The policy approved by this board was a compromise we felt protected our neighbors' concerns as well as supported our youth activities as we tried to compromise fairly with both situations."

Morgan said Tuesday to Patch that neighbors are requesting the school board get an independent engineering firm to check the light levels, as he said the firms involved in the planning and installation have a "vested financial interest" in the lighting level readings, as they collect a completion fee when a project is done. He also said there were ethical concerns given that Disko, the village's architect of record fired a senior member after allegations of kickbacks and fraud surfaced at three other school districts Disko works with.

Morgan said the neighbors would be willing to pay a portion of the cost for an independent expert. If the board does not agree, Morgan said, neighbors will likely bring their own independent engineer to inspect the light levels.