The Closter Police Department is now authorized to place signs instructing people to stay off public fields in the borough’s parks in order to protect fields such as the ones at Ruckman and Memorial Park and ensure their maintenance.
The Recreation Commission has placed such signs in the past from November to April when they are being winterized and aerated, but it had never had an ordinance giving official authority to do so. Now the commission does have the authority, since an ordinance adopted at last week’s meeting gives it the power to oversee the police department’s placement of these signs.
Councilman David Barad cast the lone vote opposing the ordinance’s adoption.
"It seems to me there may have been a way we could have administered this that kept people from playing a pickup football game that would destroy the field but still allow reasonable [uses] like walking a dog or flying a kite," said Barad.
He added that, instead of giving the Recreation Commission the sole authority to place the signs, he thought it was "more appropriate to be administered by the police department."
Resident Steve Isaacson vociferously gave his opinion on the ordinance, saying he found it objectionable to make it unlawful to walk on public land.
"Why all of a sudden is it an unlawful act to walk on a grass lawn? It defies logic to me," said Isaacson.
However, Recreation Director Jim Oettinger said the signs are actually a good way of protecting the taxpayers’ investment on the two very expensive fields at Ruckman and Memorial Park. In 1997 and 2002, those fields had new sod and sprinklers installed for a price of more than $100,000 each. Ruckman is used for fall soccer and spring baseball and Memorial field is used for fall soccer, football and spring baseball.
From the first week in November to the last week in April, said Oettinger, signs have been placed to protect the fields because doing so is crucial to properly maintaining them.
Tony Lupardi Jr., owner of Lupardi’s nursery, which does the fieldwork, explained that proper maintenance of the fields becomes a safety issue for the children that use them.
"With the kids playing on it all the time… the field gets very compacted. So what we do in the fall is we core aerate them [which] loosens the compaction of the soil. Then we slit seed and what that does is it puts the seed into the ground. Then you have to give it time to germinate and take hold," he said.
In the spring, said Lupardi, a layer that forms at the base of the grass is removed and the aeration and slit seeding process is repeated to give a fuller turf. "Without the turf you get mud spots where the kids can slip and fall and also the hard compaction without loosening that up [becomes dangerous] with kids falling on it," he said.
Therefore, he said, keeping people from using the fields and interrupting any part of the process is essential.
Traffic on the fields, even in the winter, said Lupardi, could interrupt the growth of grass since traffic on a field where the grass has not taken full hold yet is damaging.
"Until the spring comes, unless [the grass] takes full hold, then going on it is not good for the field," said Lupardi, adding that germination does not occur until the ground temperature reaches 55 degrees.
Putting up signs forbidding the public from using the fields is the "least expensive and easiest way" of ensuring they will ultimately be safe for the children’s use, said Lupardi.
Oettinger added that dog walking is encouraged on the fields because it deters the geese.
"This is not an antagonistic thing, it’s a common sense thing. People can walk their dogs on the track at Ruckman, that alone chases the geese away. And at Memorial people walking their dogs is why we don’t have geese problems," he said. Instead, the law is intended to give more of a backbone to the signs that are sometimes disregarded.
"It’s frustrating when you go out there and someone is hanging their jacket on the sign basically saying ‘Who are you to tell me to get off the field?’" said Oettinger, adding that he is not looking to give anyone tickets.
