Boro Councilman Opposes Turf Fields Project

To The Editor:

I want Madison residents to know that I support our youth sports and safe playing fields but I want to share two concerns and explain why I voted no to fund $3.5 million for the turf project on the 49 acres.  First, the process to develop artificial turf fields on 10 acres in the Madison Recreation Complex is flawed. Second, there are too may “ifs” in the funding process.
 
To my first concern, the Madison Recreation Complex needs an overall Master Plan for infrastructure, for active and passive recreation, a dog park and community gardens.  The Mayor and Council hired T&M consultants to create the Master Plan and also to develop a field plan for the 10 acres known as the “Pit,” The Madison Recreation Complex Advisory Committee was to help create this Master Plan, but, unfortunately, the Mayor did not reconstitute the Committee in January 2010. That left the Recreation Advisory Committee to deal with the 10 acre field development. Both the Council Liaison to the Recreation Advisory Committee and the Council Liaison to the Engineer and Public Works were left out of the process.  The bottom line is we have a process that did not include important stakeholders and, now, we have no Master Plan.
 
Second, there are too many “ifs” in the funding process.  The Borough’s contribution all along was supposed to be $1 million with the School Board and fundraising contributing the other $2 million.  Now, the Borough is taking on $3.5 million more debt for this project at a time of great economic uncertainty for our residents. The supporters of this project say that there will be user fees, fundraising, and School Board contributions of $1 million once the Green Village Road School is sold.  That’s a lot of “ifs” and I could not in good conscience vote yes for this project knowing that we have many capital projects like road, sewer, water improvements and repairs that will now be delayed because this project jumped to the head of the class.  
 
Sam Cerciello