Construction Alert: Upper Hawes Field Gets an Upgrade Thanks to Generous RBSA Donation
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, great news for youth sports in Ridgewood. The Village of Ridgewood is seizing the opportunity provided by the NJEA Teachers’ Convention break to begin significant renovation work on Upper Hawes Field.
With Ridgewood Public Schools closed on November 6th and 7th, construction crews are moving in immediately to transform the community space into an official, high-quality Little League field. This exciting project is made possible through a generous donation from the Ridgewood Baseball Softball Association (RBSA), highlighting a strong partnership between the local sports community and the Village.
Key Project Details & Field Closure
The core construction work is scheduled to take place over the November 6th weekend and is expected to be completed swiftly. However, the community must note an important closure schedule necessary to preserve the quality of the new field:
- Immediate Closure: Upper Hawes Field is closed starting this week.
- Long-Term Closure: The field will remain closed through the spring of 2026.
This extended closure is critical to ensure the newly upgraded field is fully established and robust enough to handle years of play, guaranteeing the best possible surface for our young athletes.
Lower Hawes Field (pictured) was renovated this past spring, and Upper Hawes Field is next in line for improvement. Thanks to a generous $56,300 donation from the Ridgewood Baseball & Softball Association, Upper Hawes will be upgraded to an official Little League field next week. Work is scheduled for November 6 and 7 – when schools are closed for the NJEA Convention – and is expected to be completed by November 8.
Safety First: Stay Off School Grounds
The Village of Ridgewood is prioritizing safety during this renovation period. We ask all community members to strictly adhere to the following warning:
For safety reasons, please stay away from school grounds during the renovation. Construction equipment and personnel will be highly active in the area. Unauthorized access to the work site poses a serious risk.
We appreciate the community’s cooperation in keeping the area clear to ensure a safe and efficient project completion.
Investing in Ridgewood’s Future Athletes
The renovation of Upper Hawes Field represents a significant enhancement to Ridgewood’s recreational facilities. The RBSA’s investment ensures that local baseball and softball players will have access to a top-tier field designed specifically for Little League play, fostering skill development and community sports for years to come.
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No turf?
This is great!
When is our tap water going to be safe to drink again?
No, the turf is only for BF, Sommerville and Shedler for now.
Can we please stop with this “generous donation” crap.
They collect fees and are using the money to improve the fields they play on.
Yeah and that’s a donation. Are you stepping up?
Why did the announcement come from the Village?
Isn’t this property owned by the BOE?
No
Hawes upper and lower are village fields
Perhaps this underutilized field will be further underutilized. We need more underutilized fields (Schedler).
Not sure if it’s underutilized but that new scoreboard hasn’t been turned on in at least 5 years…
Ridgewood has 19 travel baseball teams and the largest little league program in northern Nj …
Ridgewood is an absolute hot bed for producing Division 1, Minor League, and MLB baseball prospects.
Are all of the players residents or Ridgewood or are our tax dollars going to support children from other towns? These figures of membership and where members reside seem to be a bit of a smoke show, so some clarity would be helpful. It may help Ridgewood voters and tax payers to understand how their tax money is allocated properly.
I’m not sure what to think about this. Hawes is the only school in Ridgewood without its own field. Every other school has a field owned by the BOE. The two fields at Hawes are Village owned. Last year, the lower field was closed from November until May for improvements and expansion of the baseball diamond. This year, the upper field will be off limits to our school children from November until the end of the year. I don’t want to be cynical, but improvements made by RBSA so that RBSA can better utilize the fields makes me concerned that our school kids will have less access to those fields. I hope I’m wrong. I’m confused as to how a school was built with no field for the school when every other school in this town has at least one, sometimes more than one, designated field.
RBSA considers the Hawes Baseball fields one of their preferred fields, they do tend to monopolize the fields and paying to have them upgraded ensures that this can happen.
And, is it only fields that are needed next to schools? What about space for a school garden? Or a grove of trees that can be in informal outdoor classroom, or just a space where kids can relax their brains by being in nature? There is lots of research that shows access to nature DURING the school day reduces stress, promotes empathy, improves concentration, raises math test scores across all demographic groups, increases high school graduation rates etc. etc.
Clicking on a “thumbs down” to this comment is simply sad.
Hawes is surrounded by trees and sadly the students probably can’t go near them.
Tell me you’ve never been on Sems trail without telling me you’ve never been on Sems trail.
Thank you Rbsa for helping to preserve these fields for the future.
Where is Nancy Bigos and her sidekick Andrula. If this is a Ridgewood Village owned field and they can’t maintain the fields in Ridgewood, then are they not doing their job. There is a lot of dead weight in Ridgewood so they should be working to beef up the properties that Ridgewood owns, isn’t this the very nature of the ridiculous increase to the open space fund that they put on the ballot?
That department parks and rec is the most disorganized waste. So poorly run. It needs new management ASAP. Tax dollars wasted left and right. Look out for your mo ye Ridgewood.
god forbid the town actually tries to create decent playable fields for their youth. What a bunch of complaining Karens.