Township Defends New Softball Field As Project Nears Completion

As work on a new municipal softball field on Lower Shore Road draws to a close, the township is emphasizing that the facility serves everyone in the township, even as some continue to criticize the project and its use of open space funds.

As of mid-July, said township Administrator David Breeden, the new field had cost the township a total of $126,598.79.

Of that, $60,710 was paid for with the remainder of Barnegat’s recreation assessment trust fund, he said, which developers have had to pay into in the past when building new homes in the township. That fund is no longer growing, since a state court struck down the fund payments as a requirement for developers, and the Lower Shore project has now used the last of the trust money, Breeden said.

The remaining project costs – just over half of the total – has been paid for with taxpayer dollars, Breeden said. A little more than $50,000 came out of the township’s open space trust fund, another $13,209.40 came from the current fund and the remaining $2,518.89 came from the water and sewer budget.

All that has covered everything from engineering fees to fertilizer to bleachers. Once a few finishing touches are complete, he said – putting in irrigation and expanding the outfield – the field will be open and available for use by residents.

And that means all residents, Breeden said, “whether it’s the men’s softball league, the Junior Bengals or a family of four just going down to hit a ball around.”

It’s a point Breeden said he’s made over and over in recent months as debate over the fields has continued. Still, some have claimed the decision to build the field was a political one, and that Township Committee members were aiming to appease senior softball players.

“It wasn’t that the field was built, it was they way it was done,” said Committeeman Leonard Morano, who has been critical of the Lower Shore Road project. Barnegat’s youth travel baseball teams were after a disagreement with the local Little League shut them out of playing on the League fields, Morano said. While the travel teams ultimately found a home at Waretown’s 11th Street field, similar complaints of a lack of facilities from a senior softball league ultimately led to the construction of the Lower Shore Road fields here in Barnegat, he said.

“If it’s for everyone, why weren’t the kids and the girls’ softball teams there to cut the ribbon?” said Morano.

Others are concerned with the source of the funding for the project. Jake Taylor, a member of the township’s Open Space Committee, said at the July meeting of the township committee that his frustration over the new field has to do with the use of open space funds to build it.

Taylor said too much of the fund is going to pay for recreation instead of the purchase of land for preservation. Money that taxpayers expect to go toward buying land shouldn’t be spent on lawnmowers and trophies, he said.

“This is a slush fund,” he said. “None of it is going for open space.”

But Breeden said building recreational facilities is one of the four allowable uses of open space funds. It’s spelled out in the ordinance, he said: The fund is for the acquisition, development and maintenance of conservation land, recreational properties, farmland and historic properties.

“It’s a proper and permitted use of the open space fund,” Breeden said. “Most municipalities have ordinances modeled this way, to allow multiple uses of the fund.”

After all, he said, its ultimate mission is to prevent the commercial and industrial development of lands. “It doesn’t say the land has to just stand with trees,” he said.

The township hasn’t written off buying up more land, he said, but the time isn’t right.

“There’s still a downward trend in the real estate market,” he said. “Developers aren’t building approved projects, let alone going out and acquiring open space and getting approvals. There’s still a decline in the market value of open space. We’ll wait until that bottoms out before we consider the acquisition of any additional open space.”

In the meantime, he said, the Lower Shore Road field is a good investment that fills a need in Barnegat.

“When I first came here in 2006, I said Barnegat was in a recreational crisis,” said Breeden. It’s not one group that’s been asking for new fields, he said, it’s been a complaint across the board. There was finally a critical mass, and the township is answering residents’ calls now.

“The community has been virtually yelling and screaming for more recreational facilities, and we’re listening and we’re fulfilling their needs,” he said.