Turfing Recommendations Made for 49 Acres, BOE Property

Progress is being made on the 49 acres behind Ridgedale Road, but there are still many things holding the borough back from getting too far on the project.

Mayor Mary-Anna Holden said at the Borough Council Meeting on Monday night that Madison Recreation Complex Advisory Committee (MRC) chair Marty Horn, engineering firm T & M Associates and field turf representatives all met on Jan. 12 to share the files they each had produced regarding the project.

Councilman Robert Conley reported to the borough that after the meeting the MRC came up with its final turfing recommendation for the plan that includes a joint effort of the 49 acres and Board of Education property.

Conley said the plan includes two multi-purpose rectangular fields in the pit area. Those fields would be for sports that use those type of geometrically shaped grounds, such as football, soccer, field hockey and lacrosse. Another rectangular field would sit behind the high school just on the other side of the fence from the pit, and a turf baseball field would be on the high school property.

However, the plan itself is all subject to further work and investigation.

"What they're hoping to do so we can continue to move toward potential construction, or at least planning of this site, is engage T & M to do further research on the wetlands issue, apply for permits from DEP if necessary, create an estimated cost budget, and work toward creating actual bid documents," Conley said.

Another roadblock that must be moved is the annexation of the property purchased from Florham Park. Borough attorney Joseph Mezzacca said the Florham Park Planning Board still needed to approve the subdivision site plan so that the filed map would cut off the tail that Madison didn't purchase.

Mezzacca said the planning board was meeting Monday night, but the agenda was heavy and that the board may not have gotten to it. In that case, it would have been moved to next week's meeting.

Until that is done, the property cannot be annexed. Mezzacca said he envisions the entire process to finish several months down the road.

In the meantime, the mayor and council will be putting together a public fundraising committee to help generate money for the project. The mayor also pointed out that there is more than just the wetlands issue, and DEP permits that go along with it, that the borough can look into.

"We're all focusing on turf all the time, the carpeting and where it's going to go," Holden said. "But we really need to kind of back up and see what's going to go underneath and the engineering. Part of it is not only the wetlands constraint, but the water has to be collected under these fields. Trying to find the best way to get the water off the field–to either have to hold it and retain it in another section of the property, or if there is an easy way to get it into existing plumbing or intake–that's part of it."