file photo by Boyd Loving
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, spring sports season is eagerly anticipated by students in the Ridgewood School District, but currently, athletes find themselves without fields to play on due to repeated damage caused by flooding.
Located just feet away from the bubbling Ho-Ho-Kus Brook are two athletic fields utilized by Ridgewood student-athletes. Unfortunately, the brook has overflowed its banks on at least three occasions in the past year, inundating the fields and rendering the turf unusable.
Jeff Nyhuis, principal of Ridgewood High School, explained, “The brook is very close to our field line. It’s in a flood plain, and over the last couple of years, we’ve had more incidences.”
Even under the cover of snow, the fields remain in disrepair.
To address this issue, the Ridgewood School Board recently approved a bid from a vendor to undertake the necessary repairs, which are expected to take approximately two weeks. However, due to scheduling constraints, the repairs will not commence until the end of February.
With the varsity spring sports season scheduled to begin on March 14, time is of the essence.
Parents and students alike are hopeful that the fields will be ready in time. “It’s such a point of overall health and mental wellbeing for kids to be active,” remarked parent Elizabeth Frers. “So, it’s an all-around benefit for everybody to have the fields up and running.”
Principal Nyhuis outlined the immediate goal: “Short term is to have it ready for spring athletics — boys and girls lacrosse, girls flag football.”
1903 flooding at RHS Stadium
In the long term, the district is collaborating with the Army Corps of Engineers to explore solutions, including the possibility of raising the fields to mitigate future flooding.
Should the fields remain unavailable for spring sports, officials are coordinating with 12 neighboring school districts to utilize their facilities.
While the repair costs are covered by insurance, taxpayers will still bear the financial burden, with an estimated $25,000 per field required for repairs.
Principal doesn’t speak to Vets fields where baseball and softball play.
Vets is town owned, not BOE.
yep…but the RHS teams play there so should be of equal concern
Village Mgr:
“as you know the BOE and Village collaborate on field space”
baseball and softball need fields too and no chance vets will be ready for opening day if the season at all
It seems strange that they will again put turf down on a field that floods. Why not figure out how to raise the field or go back to grass. They seem to be doing the same thing over and over again. I am not on social media facebook but according to Keith Kazmark when engaged in a public facebook group discussino related to BOE fields he stated: “as you know the BOE and Village collaborate on field space. The decision to alter the District athletic facilities falls completely with the purview of the BOE. When fields are flooded it places more pressure on Village facilities. So general demand and demand after a flood event are both essential reasons the Village Council has decided to pursue this application with SHPO. I hope this answers your questions.”
It’s not strange.
They know they can treat the taxpayers like an ATM
We’re good with it ‘cuz we’re
RICH and STUPID
Yes; that is why we moved to Ridgewood !
I bet the track coaches are giggling to themselves…so glad they gave up the track at Seavers Stadium back in 2009.
That was Fishbein doing, his kids ran track so they got a delux setup at BF including very limited use of the natural grass infield, and made the rest of the sports play on plastic. Plus BF is not in a flood plane.
I hope they get it cleaned in time for the next storm.
They must have top notch flood insurance to be able to “crisis manage” this flooding over and over and over.
Just go back to grass already!!!
Time to drain the swamps. Literally and figuratively.
Wow, this has been happening for decades! Same stupidity as building Village Hall on a flood plain. Stupid Ridgewood property taxpayers.
Read a book, kids. Sports are stupid.
Artificial turf fields should be made illegal in the flood plane. Every time the fields flood, RHS contributes tons of micro plastics (rubber pellets) into the Hohokus Brook, Saddle River, Passaic River and the Atlantic Ocean.
On Friday 3/22, RHS completed the cleaning of the fields by adding the rubber pellets the day before an expected 3″ rainstorm. A continued practice knowingly of polluting our Planet, for the sake of over committed sports teams. d