Dear Editor:
On Thursday, August 13 at 6:30 p.m., Parsippany Board of Education is holding a meeting at the Board Office, 292 Parsippany Road, to discuss how and when the newly turfed football field and track will be used once work has been completed this September. (Editors note: click here to read related article).
At that meeting the board will provide the public with the opportunity to comment and hopefully the board will take the public’s input into consideration as they decide who will use the field and when the field will be used having served on the board of education for seven years I know that if the board does not receive any feedback from the public, the board will likely conclude that it can take any action it wants to take and will then feel free to favorably consider the requests that are going to come from the many organizations that will want to use the Parsippany High School field. (Please remember that the turfed field is being lined so that football, soccer, field hockey and lacrosse teams can use it. As the board of education has the authority to allow any Parsippany based not- for-profit organization to use the field the risk that the field could be in use seven days a week from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. is very real.
On numerous occasions over the past couple of years the board of education has been asked to provide families who live around and near the field information as to how the board planned to manage potential noise, parking, litter and safety issues that might arise as a result of opening up the field to teams other than those that play for the high school. Up to this point in time the Board of Education has refused to comment which is why attending the meeting on August 13 is so important. Among the questions that need to be answered:
Which organizations does the Board of Education intend to allow to use the field and what will be the ages of the athletes allowed to use the field?
What days of the week will the field be available to those organizations and what hours will the field be open? Who will enforce those hours?
What kind of noise restrictions will be in effect i.e. no public address system?
Will parking be allowed on streets surrounding the field or restricted to the high school parking lot?
Who will be responsible for ensuring that the surrounding neighborhoods are kept safe and clean when the fields are being used by non-school teams and their out of town opponents?
Bob Crawford
Parsippany
