>Actually, the cost of most Ridgewood youth sports programs are very reasonable compared to other programs in our area and provide great value for the cost. We just registered our son for lacrosse this spring. It cost $100 for the house league and another $40 to play in the travel program. The youth lacrosse program most similar in size to Ridgewood’s is Summit NJ, which charges $125 for intramural and $225 for intramural and travel. Highlands’ Youth Lacrosse program, which is not as comprehensive as Ridgewood’s program charges a flat fee of $140.
With that said, I think it makes sense for the users of our fields to pay for the cost of lights (just as they do for the portable lights). To install permanent lights at the RHS or Maple would cost about $150K. If every RHS and youth sport participant was charged a $25 surcharge when registering for each sport they play, the cost of lighting one of these fields could be paid for in one year. Over a period of 5 years we could install the necessary lights on Maple, Stevens, RHS, Vets & Citizens, without impacting taxpayers.
That amount could be reduced if the sports groups chose to subsidize some of the cost, as well. This would eliminate the noise we all hate, improve the effectiveness of the lighting and eliminate light “spillage” into unwanted areas away from the field. None of this would increase the amount of usage that a field gets, as strict field usage/lighting policies are already in place. Thus, there should be nothing for neighbors to complain about.
