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Plan sheds light on other problems
(by Maggie Fazeli Fard - May 13, 2008)
Testimony regarding the installation of field lights at St. Joseph Regional High School wound to a close last Tuesday. Although the hearing of the application, which requests a height variance to install four new poles carrying 42 lights around the school’s football field, has been ongoing since December, the technical aspect of the plan has not been discussed in months.
“Unfortunately, this hearing has gotten away from where it should be,” said Planning Board Chairman John DePinto at the May 6 meeting. “The hearing has drifted off into a direction about how the property has been abused.”
Since the hearing of the lighting application began, Montvale and Woodcliff Lake residents who share property lines with the south and north sides of St. Joe’s football field have dominated meetings with their complaints.
Leading topics of discussion over the past six months have included an alleged increase in field use in recent years, glare from existing security lights atop the field house, holes in the fence separating St. Joe’s from its neighbors, excessive noise and profanity, inappropriate disposal of garbage including liquor bottles and condoms, and public urination.
St. Joe’s Principal Barry Donnelly addressed these concerns last Tuesday, stating that reports of these problems “[make] it seem like the school and the residents are on opposite sides of this, and we’re not.”
Donnelly, who is currently serving his first year as principal of St. Joe’s, where he has worked for more than 30 years, promised that the school has and will continue to take steps to alleviate residents’ concerns, whether or not the planning board approves the lighting application.
He said that the field house lights have been redirected as instructed by the borough engineer to reduce glare, that coaches have been instructed that music featuring profane language is not permitted and that adult sports leagues have been advised that they will no longer be permitted to use the field.
Additionally, he said the school is in the process of receiving estimates to repair holes in three portions of the fence, work that Donnelly expects will be completed before the start of the fall sports season.
To counter the public urination reported on the visitors’ side of the field, where there are currently no portable toilets in place, St. Joe’s will add portable toilets and restrict the number of people permitted on that side.
During soccer and lacrosse games, the home sideline will be used for both teams and their visitors. During junior varsity football games, the home team and all visitors will use the home side; the visiting team will be permitted to use the visitors’ side bleachers since they have to enter the field from an opposite sideline.
The use of both the home and visitors’ sides will be permitted for players and spectators during varsity football games only.
“We’ve been a good neighbor,” said Donnelly, “and we’re committed to keeping it that way.”
Despite Donnelly’s assurances, there was hesitation among planning board members who, one after another, said that they could not support the application. They questioned the necessity for the lights and criticized the apparent continuation of undesirable conditions despite the length of time that has passed since the application began.
DePinto, for one, said that he visited the school about three days after the last meeting.
“I was appalled,” he said. “My observations were disturbing.”
DePinto said that he walked around the football field from the home side to the visitors’ side. To reach the visitors’ side, he had to cross a precarious patch of grass, noting there is no path and no accessibility for the disabled, that slopes downward. He said he had a hard time getting to and from the visitors’ side “without nearly falling off the edge of the field in broad daylight.”
“I don’t think I’d like to go to St. Joe’s as a visitor,” admitted DePinto. “We are subjecting people to possible harm.”
Additionally, said DePinto, he observed the lacrosse team disembark from their bus following an away game. As they made their way to the field house, the students used foul language.
“Now maybe that’s normal,” he said. “[But] this is an environment where I hope the coaches would take control.”
DePinto said that he has driven by the school several times since his visit and that he has seen unauthorized vehicles parked in the lot on a regular basis.
“I look at this property and I say, ‘We’re not maintaining the fields and we’re not maintaining the parking lots.’ What’s to lead me to believe that we can maintain the lights?” he asked.
“What’s before us now is not making sense to me. We are a land use board. It’s a sad commentary that we had to go off in a direction of property maintenance… I find it difficult to support this.”
The planning board will hear closing remarks from St. Joe’s attorney, Andy Del Vecchio at its next meeting on Tuesday, May 20.
Maggie Fazeli Fard's e-mail address is fazelifard@northjersey.com.
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