New Jersey school district working with Army Corps of Engineers on long-term fix to athletic field flooding
RIDGEWOOD, N.J. -- Students in the Ridgewood School District are looking forward to spring sports, but right now athletes don't have fields to play on.
That's after some of those fields were damaged multiple times by flooding.
But there is a plan to get the kids back out there.
Just feet from the babbling Ho-Ho-Kus Brook sits two athletic fields used by Ridgewood student-athletes. At least three times in the last year the brook swelled over its banks, swamping the fields and destroying the turf.
Jeff Nyhuis is principal of Ridgewood High School.
"The brook is very close to our field line. It's in a flood plain, and over the last couple of years we've had more incidences," Nyhuis said.
Under the snow, the fields are still wrecked.
On Monday, the Ridgewood School Board accepted a bid from a vendor to make the repairs, which should take about two weeks, but the vendor will have to wait until the end of February to begin.
The varsity spring sports season kicks off March 14, so the timing is tight.
Students and parents are hoping the fields are ready.
"It's such a point of overall health and then mental wellbeing for kids to be active," parent Elizabeth Frers said. "So, it's an all-around benefit for everybody to have the fields up and running.
"Short term is to have it ready for spring athletics -- boys and girls lacrosse, girls flag football," Nyhuis said.
Long term, the district is working with the Army Corps of Engineers on a solution.
Raising the fields is on the table.
"We're looking at bigger projects to, you know, make sure that we can do something that's not going to push the problem downstream, but also allow us to not be shut down when we have some rain," Nyhuis said.
If the fields are not ready in time for spring sports, officials are working with 12 nearby school districts to borrow their facilities.
Fixing the Ridgewood fields is not cheap. They are insured, but taxpayers will pay about $25,000 per field to get them repaired.
