Photos By Boyd Loving
Readers Say Turf Fields Exacerbate Village Flooding
Is seems ever time it rans now , significance damage is done to our playing fields and Village property .
We were told the turf fie;ds would drain faster , well yes they sure do but the water still needs some place to go like the Village Hall , the Ridgewood library .
Since the Village Hall Rebuilding Fiasco , and the addition of turf fields along the Ho Ho Kus brook the 50 year flood has now become an almost yearly event .
Is it time to recognize the damage to the environment all this turf is doing ?
The problem is not just the fields at Stevens ,Maple and the RHS Stadium but the many turf fields all along the banks of our rivers all over Bergen County . Again the water needs some place to go .
Photos By Boyd Loving
I hope “reader” is not a scientist.
not sure but we know you are not
The writer is an environmentalist but makes a good point. The hardscape sheds water while landscape tries to retain water.
whats really gross and disgusting is that we are downstream from the NW Bergen Utility Authority Sewer plant in Waldwick which feeds the stream.
Treatment is to remove human waste but I’d like to know about antibiotic residue, diseases, etc.
Those fields should be bleached as part of the cleanup
Crap flows down hill.
1600+ students at the high school. How many of them benefit from the turf field that we all pay for? Are they really better off on turf? PE classes would survive without the turf field. Don’t double count the kids who play fall/spring sports on the field. How many sports scholarships did we need to break even? News flash- many of those sports scholarships are $5k or less! Maybe a couple of students get into a top tier school that they their grades alone did not merit. I should not have to repeatedly pay for field repairs for your kid’s college resume.
The field will continue to flood and we will continue to pay for repairs. How much have we paid already for repairs? When do we stop?
Since nobody seems able to remember anything that happened more than a month before, maybe the current situation will help send Glen Rock residents to the polls and vote down the synthetic turf referendum that they were able to put on the November ballot through a petition after their municipal government approved a multimillion-dollar bond to build the stuff, which the sports groups had promised to fund completely, but were unable to.
well, Ironically, we did vote it down when asked. But, the powers that be decided to include it in yet another $40 million dollar group of projects that we absolutely needed (remind anyone of congress?), so we are now stuck with it. I’d love to see the cost to date versus the original projections. I seem to recall that the “experts” told us that no maintenance was required for 10 years. The days of the sports groups “buying” things for the town has to end, too. Why should we pay to continue to maintain these gifts. If they want turf fields, lights, etc, they should raise their fees to build a maintenance budget to be transferred to the town annually.
Brookside field was also under water, I didn’t know that that field was turf. Oh that’s right it isn’t. It did however have a strong scent of sewage.
Maybe the problem is the sewage plant, why does that keep overflowing? That is North of the Turf fields.
Let’s get to the root of the problem not a personal agenda.
I think it’s time to get the input of the Valley “experts,” you know, the group that Valley hauled in to try and pull off their latest effort. What the hell, maybe their opinions on this issue might make more sense than what they had to say on the expansion.
Would be very interested in hearing what caused the flooding- Who to Ask?
I did not see Brookside Field, but the grass fields behind the library were fine. same zone as the MAPLE TURF field which was ruined. WHY? is the big question. Not installed correctly, volume of water cannot be handled? WHY?
Brookside was completely under water (for several hours) and the Ho-ho-kus brook was at it’s crest, the volume of water was that of a major hurricane. Not normal for the amount of rain,
They fixed the bridge from Stevens field to the High School field to let more water flow down. This must have helped Vets. There must be another bridge holding up the flow down stream.
Also what caused this?
I told you all 10 years a go don’t put down fake grass, so now suck it up. what a waste of money.
hummmmm some one open’ed up the shit lines up above in ny like last fall.wake up people.