KEARNY –
Last Tuesday, Mayor Alberto Santos and the Town Council held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newly-renovated Veteran’s Memorial Field sports facility.
The town began planning for improvements to the field fronting along Belgrove Drive more than a year ago after identifying significant recreational program demands that would not be met while much of the Gunnell Oval athletics complex was off-limits while awaiting an expensive makeover.
As a result, town officials opted to move forward with conversion of Veteran’s Field, from dirt to artificial turf, and increased field availability while continuing to search for funds to fix the Oval, which figures to be closed down altogether when work is expected to begin in 2017.
With the completion of the job at Veteran’s Field by Applied Landscape Technologies of Montville, the complex – which previously included one dedicated Little League field, one softball diamond and one football field overlaying the softball infield – now accommodates two Little League fields with 50-to70-feet field overlay flexibility, one softball field and one mixed-use football and lacrosse field which overlays both the softball and one of the two Little League fields.
The $1,552,500 cost of the project was underwritten by funding from the Hudson County Open Space Trust, the Community Development Block Grant program and municipal bond ordinance.
The contractor broke ground last August and finished much of the job by the end of November, leaving only some patch-work items to be done. The work was completed ahead of schedule and within budget and now ensures that the town Recreation Department can accommodate its spring schedule of baseball, softball, football and lacrosse.
“Veteran’s Field was in need of updates and improvements,” Santos said. “This project has been in the planning stage for several years and I’m extremely pleased that we are finally able to reopen the entire facility in time for spring. I’m sure that the athletes and their families who spend so many hours here will appreciate and enjoy the new facilities.”
