>Light Gate:the saga continues
the Staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ – Councilwoman Bernadette Walsh questioned sports group members asking if the parents whose fees were collected by the organizations knew their dollars were going toward under the table agreements for field lighting and make improvements to both village or BOE properties?
As has been reported previously reported many parents have expressed both unhappiness with the late night filed lights and the fact that sides deals with the BOE appear to have been struck without consent of the Village Council or parents .Sports Groups have responded to paraphrase ,if you don’t like it don’t play . Councilwoman Walsh who apparently didn’t get the memo that Sports Groups now run the Village was not impressed with this answer.
The Sports Groups are non profits run by volunteers and in the past have unilaterally decided to spend their funds on what ever was best for the organization , but the current lighting controversy ,dubbed as “Light Gate” involves more that just the Sports Groups and the children that enjoy participating . Late night light create both a light and noise problem for the neighbors who have argued that they were never consulted before or during the project .
The BOE has relied on the argument that the argument that the field upgrades were approved in a referendum which included the lighting however there seems to be some debate over whether the Lighting and the additional playing times were included or not ,thus the moniker, “Light Gate” . To make things worse the the referendum was barley approved with a majority of its support coming from the Willard School district which has seen a notable absence of field lights.
