The High Cost of High Water: Fields Cleanup to Cost Taxpayers $31K

Village and school officials have confirmed could run taxpayers approximately $31,100 after storms raged through the village over the weekend.

There may have been contaminates released from sewage runoff at the Northwest Bergen Utilities Plant, officials said, and testing and treatment is in motion to get the fields back to working order as quickly as possible. Plant Director Howard Hurwitz could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

After days of by nearly two feet, high school fields Stevens and RHS Stadium, along with Maple Park, Brookside and Veterans Field remain shuttered though the cleanup is underway.

"The fields will be closed until further notice," Parks & Recreation Director Tim Cronin said in a phone interview with Patch. Cronin said he expects work to start at Maple on Friday and it should be in use toward the end of next week.

Cronin reported that it will cost roughly $9,300 for the village to clean Maple Park but Veterans Field will be done in-house.

"We've already done the infield and we're waiting for the turf in the outfields to dry and we can put our Smithco sweeper on it," he said of the cleanup at Veterans.

Maple will be swept by the village and Dakota Excavating, the company that installed the turf at the field as well as high school fields, will be working on removing organic material and silt.

"I don't have any knowledge of contaminates," Cronin said when asked on Thursday, but added that the village will be testing the fields and will treat once they're dried sufficiently should contaminates be found.

"If there are contaminates on there, the wind, sun and rain wash it out. [But] Being a public entity it's part of our normal process to do that," he said of testing.

While he said no one can predict the weather, Cronin doesn't believe this type of flooding will be the status quo. "This is not a normal flood," Cronin said. "Maple Park has only flooded once before and that too was a severe flood."

School fields

Assistant Superintendent of Business Angelo DeSimone said the hope is to open the Stadium Field and Stevens on Saturday and Monday, respectively.

Dakota Excavating will be performing the cleanup at both fields, he said, which suffered heavy damage from silt and flooding. The total cost will run the district $21,800. The money, he said, would be paid out of the current general operating budget and there's enough to cover the damage.

"We have flood insurance and the insurance company has been here to determine if we have a claim," DeSimone said of the possibility of outside relief. The district has not yet received a response. "We are looking also to FEMA to see if there is relief available there."

In terms of treatment for possible contaminates, DeSimone said they're not waiting to find out if they are there.

"We are treating regardless of testing. It is my understanding that testing takes four days. It is more timely to treat the fields as though they tested positive for contaminates," he said.

Sport groups have been notified and signs have been posted at fields noting prohibiting use. Village Police and local officials are also aware of the closings, officials said.

The high school baseball team will be playing home games at Ramapo College, Cronin said.

Until the fields can be fully cleaned and cleared for use, "The grass fields are being used to the greatest extent possible," DeSimone remarked.

Resident response

Residents near the high school fields have lobbed critical jabs at school officials, citing the recent flooding and associated cost as a reason against the turfing in the first place.

The $2.8 million bonded fields were turfed after the DEP provided a hardship permit in May amid numerous concerns from residents.

Tom Kossoff and Jim Morgan of the Ridgewood High School Neighborhood Association (RHSNA) sent letters to village officials and school board members–as well as the press–asking for answers on the state of the floods.

Many of the questions they had were the ones they'd posed months earlier, when the plans for turfing had first arisen.

"We told them it was in the wrong place, we told them it would happen with a good sized rain. I'd hate to say I told you so," Morgan said. "But I told you so."

"The fields were put in a place they shouldn't have been put with multi-million dollar turf put in a flood plain without a manufacturer's warranty," he added.

Kossoff questioned the long-term viability of the fields in such storms.

"Are these fields really viable and affordable in the flood plain they
are in?," Kossoff asked.

"Field Turf does not guarantee or warranty these fields against floods. The Ridgewood taxpayer now does."

"I love the turf fields," Kossoff defended. "The problem is they don't belong in the flood plain unless you have an unlimited budget to pay for the repairs. I don't think we have that kind of budget anymore."

DeSimone downplayed concerns the this type of flooding will not be a rare occurrence and costs will balloon when asked. "Flooding has always been a consideration regarding its impact on the use of the high school fields," he said.

"We expect that high school field usage will be greater than it ever was due to the stability of the turf surface."