By Catherine Wilde
Staff Writer | June 25 2008
Several local mayors urged Northern Valley Regional High School officials last week not to progress with limiting the use of the district’s tracks and artificial fields in order to preserve their life.
The mayors, from Haworth, Demarest and Closter, along with district and community officials came together to discuss alternatives to restricting use of the fields to only allow high school students, a solution that had been raised at a May school board meeting. School board members posited this idea because the tracks at both Old Tappan and Demarest campuses are showing signs of abnormal wear and are due for $150,000 worth of repairs this summer.
However, representatives of the taxpayers in the sending towns were nothing short of outraged at the idea of limiting the use of the facilities.
"This was sold to us as a community field, that’s how it was sold when the bond passed," said Mayor Jim Carroll of Demarest. He urged the district to set forth rules and guidelines, which all the towns’ teams must abide by when using the fields.
"You know what needs to be done and we want the facility to last as long as possible," he said.
Haworth Mayor John DeRienzo agreed, saying he is "comfortable with rules regulating the use of the field," that teams must abide by.
For example, Demarest Athletic Director Jim Grasso said mats had been purchased to protect the track’s surface, especially the first two lanes where benches are set up for soccer players. The group also discussed narrowing the width of the field for teams’ use in order to prevent the wear and tear caused by benches being set up outside the field.
Northern Valley Demarest Principal Bruce Sabatini also suggested monitoring the length of the spikes used in track shoes to ensure minimal damage.
However, the ultimate replacement of the tracks and fields is a given and Superintendent Jan Furman said that, knowing that and given the state imposed spending caps a plan should be implemented for future funding of the facilities.
"There should be a mechanism to produce revenue we could put into a reserve fund and develop for the life of the new track… and have money to replace it in X-amount of years," Furman said.
However, Carroll disagreed with the request for extra money from his community, saying taxpayers contribute enough and "regular wear and tear" is the "price of doing business."
Both school and town officials came to a consensus on a solution DeRienzo raised, which is to reach out to the Bergen County Improvement Authority to bond for the repairs.
He planned to contact the Bergen County Superintendent Aaron Graham regarding the plan to bond for "preventative maintenance" to be paid out over six or seven years.
Business Administrator Raymond Jacobus pointed out that in order to approve going out to bond the district would need to have a referendum vote.
Furman said a meeting with the mayors from the northern end of the district would be held at another date. She said she "appreciated everyone coming out and [is] looking forward to hearing from Mayor DeRienzo after his conversation with Graham and the people of the Bergen County Improvement Authority."
