
the staff of thee Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, in a discussion about the fields, artificial turf, and grass seed options at the April 8, 2024 meeting of the Ridgewood Board of Education, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mark Schwarz said (verbatim):
“To be clear we would have to dramatically decrease the utilization of our fields. We’re not a community that has vast open spaces and can have tons and tons of grass fields that can be rested and rotated. So we have to pick our poison (yes, he said “pick our poison”) here because it’s either going to be something that’s actually poisonous like PFAS/PFOS or a dramatic reduction in the availability of our fields – which the demand is absolutely wild in this community.”
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There is plenty of space behind Ridge School for a field.
You say that all of the time….you are wrong. It’s a tiny lot only fit for softball. There’s nothing else you can do back there.
There is plenty PLENTY of space available to expand behind Ridge
Expand. Little kid baseball can play there. Maroons small kid soccer can play there. field. Healthbarn field trips by the bus load
Yes there is
You are comparing a school district field to a village owned field.
There may be room for change but you need to take it up with the board of ed. Ask them for a new field.
In your face. Well, pick your poison Ridgewood. And knowing you, you’ll go back for seconds, and thirds … We have such a high demand for a particular service and the only way, the only way, we can deliver it is by poisoning you. So take it or leave it.
Grass fields need to rest? Regrow the grass in the spring.
Great. You tell Mother Nature to not let it rain.
You mean a demand for Ridgewood water with free PGAS in it, but it’s not free and we are paying for it cause PFAS paulie says its in everything, inuding the water, whoa, I’m a getting dizzy from the PFAS and the BS
He has correctly framed the choice. No one wants turf but everyone wants fields that can be playable all the time. We can’t have both.
When he says the demand is wild in this community, is he talking about BOE demand or does he now think he has an obligation to serve private groups (for free?)
The school runs some youth sports. Outside of school there are other sports organizations serving residents.
Do those sports organizations charge a fee? Do they pay to BOE and the village to maintain the fields?
Right, and he will be where exactly when your kid gets sick, maybe cancer from crumb rubber or the new coconut shell special eco turf that is also toxic. Where will any of these people be then? You will be in a private he’ll and no one will care because they chose to be ignorant. So sad.
Geez.
Scarf Lady finish that Ethics class yet?
Enough of this nonsense already. Take out the turf. Didn’t belong there in the first place.
He needs to familiarize himself with existing fields in his district and the potential to fix them.
He needs to make Orachard available. What’s the delay in that?
He needs to look at the utilization. There is plenty of space available that’s not utilized!!
Also in last two year, turf fields have been less available than grass fields? Grass field can dry in 2-3 days. Turf takes weeks to fix after flood.
Use ridge for things that can fit there now
Makes sense
You do realize that Orchard is swampland?
Fishbein spent over one Million of taxpayer money to fix Orchard. What happened to that?
Who is responsible for fixing Orchard? Shoukd have been fo e already.
Solution – make BF turf and RHS grass.
And get valley to pay for it!!
Rich and stupid, and proud of it
news flash ; most people in Ridgewood are not rich
Mexico will pay for it.
that should have been the original plan.
FUN FACT: The field at Orchard School can be made ready for athletic play quickly. Don’t believe those who are saying it will be out of service for the rest of the year. They may be spreading this rumor just to support their push to get Schedler built quickly. They will stop at nothing to get what they want!
“Solution – make BF turf and RHS grass.”
Ah, yes.
Back to the good old days, the new grass so soft to the touch of our fair female graduates’ unshod feet…
Siobhan said at the fields meeting this morning: “ Turf is 100% utilizable when it rains. Grass is off-line when it rains.”
WHAT? How long was the high school field in Steven’s field out of commission when the turf got all folded up and filthy
Sorry who died and made her an expert about anything. Useless twit.
How much of this “need” in the community is generated by “for profit” clubs and instructors who are making money using tax payer resources, vs how much is the “need” by schools?
which board members are up for re-election this year?
It’s high time for a change.
Yes, we should replace the lot and move forward. The cluelessness is ridiculous!
Why don’t the sports group go in by the old Kmart property and build outdoor indoor stadium perfect place for it plenty of parking and very convenient. And when not utilizing it I’m sure you can rent it out to other sport groups like they do up In Waldwick at the Dome. The village cannot keep on spending money like this. They’re spending money. They don’t have what’s going to happen another five years. We’re spending so much money on both fields and village owned. Buildings are fallen through their ass. A good majority of them are a disgrace ridiculous.
That large lot is perfect and there is even an indoor areas. It is probably way too expensive but it is a great idea and would solve all of their problems. most of which they have caused themselves by lack of improper maintenance and putting turf next to a brook that floods.
Old Kmart property in Paramus, was Sold before knocked down, going to be building apartments (low income) there!
Ridgewood Schools budget would not have had the money anyway.
Stop dreaming wish lists, face reality and stop spending more taxpayers money for fields & artificial turf.
The K-Mart location is in Paramus
And the giant pavilion for “ shelter” at Habernickel. Aka a place for Healthbarn camp overflow to go. Can you say 90 kids in a 45 person house in the rain. Capacity for the house 45. Lets build her a shelter with tax payers money
The flooding of the High School field is a school system problem. Let them build some new fields within that system. The letter from the New Jersey HPO wants to know about school system properties.
The only other thing that I can suggest is that they have to build the fields higher like a few feet that would help and that makes sense.
Shaking head. All this town is worried about is sports. We have bigger issues
Gee let me see, taxes for one!!
End all sports and the problem is solved.
By removing and replacing the “lot” as one poster suggested I hope that includes the cottage pl administration….
We need to get people educated to the dangers of turf. It is bad stuff and it also requires maintenance which includes disinfecting it from sweat, blood and other bodily fluids. People think the plastic grass does not require any upkeep but that is not true. Even then you get maybe 8 years out of it and have to put more infill into it to keep it level and if it is in a flood zone, then the run off is going into the brook in the case of the high school. Administrators need to smarten up and think sustainably. If it means raising the field, then that might have to be the solution, but if we keep getting these bad rain storms, the current set up isn’t going to work.
Pick our poison is a really horrible choice of words when speaking about turf and the really bad decision it will be to continue to poison the children with toxic plastic that will get into the Hohokus brook. where will the toxic PFAS forever chemicals go down stream. there are people fishing in there. This is really gross and I am not sure I understand how playing outside on turf increases any health benefits for children or adults when people have gotten testicular cancer (men) and other cancers in woman (amy’s list soccer players). Just seems wrong on many different levels.