County to give $1.5 million for turf fields School district will use money to install turf fields at high schools BY TOM CAIAZZA Staff Writer PHOTOS BY ANDREW MILLER staff Top and left: The John E. McGowan Field at J.P. Stevens High School in Edison is being mowed by the maintenance staff; it is slated to be replaced with artificial turf. Above: A J.P. Stevens football player runs a drill during preseason practice on the grass field that will be replaced using county funds. EDISON - The school district is poised to accept $1.5 million in county funds to renovate football fields at both township high schools. The district will replace the grass fields at both Edison High School and J.P. Stevens High School with artificial turf, a trend that has been growing in recent years and has become commonplace for districts looking to curb the cost of maintaining and replacing traditional grass fields. Carol Toth, district superintendent, said the fields are in need of replacing and that the constant traffic of scholastic and recreation sports on the fields has taken its toll. "All of our fields are overused," she said. "The seed doesn't even get a chance to grow really." She said the board had intended to replace the fields as part of the bond referendum to renovate nearly a dozen of the district's buildings, but removed the item in order to keep the bond referendum cost down while focusing on the district's building concerns. Toth is hoping to have the bids for the two fields out by late autumn and have the fields ready to play for the 2008 home openers. "I don't know if that's feasible," Toth said about the timeline, "but I'm very ambitious about it, so I'm hoping." On Aug. 16, the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders adopted a resolution appropriating the money out of the county's Open Space, Recreation and Farmland and Historic Preservation Trust. According to a press release from state Sen. Barbara Buono (D-18), the county is allowed to take money from that fund and appropriate it to individual townships to expand their recreation or open space capabilities. The Edison Recreation Department is an avid user of the school's fields. "It is a wonderful thing that the county is going to help us out," said Joe Romano, vice president of the Board of Education. "This way, the recreation department can use our fields and it is a win-win for both." The county will cede the funds to the Township Council, and it will be the council's responsibility to transfer those funds to the Board of Education. Board of Education member Susan Scerbo said that Buono played a huge role in acquiring the funds for the field, setting up the meeting between the Board of Education and the Freeholders and arguing on behalf of the school district as an interested party. "Senator Buono has helped the students of Edison tremendously," Scerbo said. Scerbo said that using the county open space funds would not directly affect Edison taxpayers and would provide for better school infrastructure for the students. The Board of Education was handed its second defeated budget in as many years last April, as well as a defeated bond referendum for school renovations. The council cut $1.7 million from the budget and the board used a combination of added revenue sources and cuts in administrative services such as the phone system to make up the shortfall. The board made waves in June when it opted to charge the township recreation program for the use of school facilities as a way to make up a $500,000 shortfall in the budget. The recreation department was forced to raise their rates for beforeand after-school care services, laying the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Board of Education. When asked if the new fields could serve as an opportunity to mend fences, Romano said that there was not a need to do so. "The fences were always there," Romano said. "I'm quite sure that we will be working together in a positive manner." Romano said that the board and the township are meeting on a monthly or bimonthly basis to move ahead together. "We will work out our differences," Romano said. "We are not going to have the same problem we had last time." The $1.5 million can be used only for purposes that aid in recreation, so acquiring money in this way to make up for the budget cuts is not feasible. While Scerbo said she would like to build more classrooms, she would not turn down $1.5 million from the county for new fields. "We need classrooms before we need fields," she said, "but it's only the open space tax."