River Edge drops $3M plan to give softball team spot to play at Veteran's Memorial Park
RIVER EDGE — The Borough Council decided not to move forward with a $3 million conceptual plan to renovate Veteran’s Memorial Park and add a girls' softball field and will instead hold meetings with stakeholders around town to find a spot for the team to play.
At the Monday night meeting, the borough council discussed three different options for the revitalization of Veteran’s Memorial Park. However, during a lengthy public comment period with community members both for and against building a field in Veterans Memorial Park, a fourth plan was proposed: transform a Little League Field into a softball field that the River Edge Girls Athletic League (REGAL) could play on.
The council did not move ahead with any of those options and instead voted to ask the recreation commission to hold a meeting with stakeholders in the community to try and find a field in the borough for the girls to play on.
The council needed to decide on a tentative plan Monday because some plans would require grants andthe county was reviewing Open Space Trust Fund grant applications later this month. The council previously applied for a grant to improve playground equipment at Brookside Park.
At the meeting, residents passionately stated their cases about whether building a new softball field in Veterans Memorial Park would be right or wrong for the community, but all agreed the girls needed a proper field to play on.
Beth Chinigò, president of the REGAL, said their group has been fighting for equal representation from the municipality since its inception in 1965. REGAL is a youth athletic program in the borough for girls up to 8th grade that offers basketball, softball, runners, volleyball, and cheerleading.
She said the field needs to be on municipal land and "any less would be unfair to the little girls in this town."
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Currently, said Chinigò, the group needs to jump through hoops to do anything, even to hang a single banner at the Roosevelt Elementary school field they play on, which she said also has "subpar drainage" and no shading. It took four months of conversation between the recreation department, board of education and an appearance at a school board to get permission to hang the banner, said Chinigò.
"That’s not good faith," said Chinigò. "It’s shameful that the council would consider not applying for grant money to provide any less than a full-time municipal field for the girls. It’s unfair to these little girls."
Anna Delia, vice-chair of the recreation commission, read a statement that said the commission hadn’t been consulted about the Veterans Memorial Park girls’ softball field proposal before hearing about it online. She said the commission was "disheartened" that they weren’t part of the discussion. The majority of the commission is in support of finding a realistic option for the REGAL teams, but didn’t support Veteran’s Memorial Park as a home for this field. She said applying for a grant did not seem like a viable option without a specific plan.
"Memorial Park is a space for all residents to use on a daily basis and simply taking down most of it to add a field would not be what’s best for our residents," said Delia.
Resident René Muñoz said while he agrees the girls do need a field somewhere in town, his biggest objection to the proposal was that it was "rushed, poorly communicated and not shared with the residents." He preferred that the council skip the grant season and have more in-depth conversations with the board of education.
Abigail Bartelloni, a high school softball player who played in REGAL in the past, said she remembers the inequality her team experienced when she was younger, saying she has scars on her legs from the field and that the softball team didn’t have a snack stand or a fence like the boys."I want my sister and the future generation of girls to have something that I didn’t have," said Bartelloni.
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Resident Vince Sicari encouraged the council to have discussions with Little League about sharing their field with the girls.
"We're not going to teach a lesson to our young boys if we don't show them that they have to share the two fields that we have," said Sicari.
Resident Jim Serednicky said the idea of "gutting Memorial Park to include a single-use facility runs counter to what our space has been about traditionally." He agreed the girls needed space, but not enough research has been done about the facilities the borough currently has.
Here are the other options the council reviewed Monday:
Borough Engineer Robert Costa presented a plan on June 27 that would add a girls' softball field, improve Little League fields and relocate a hockey rink and basketball courts.
A second option would have kept the Little League Field, basketball fields and hockey rink intact, but removed a cul-de-sac to the east and build a girls softball field to the south of the current playground, which would be upgraded.
A third option, presented by Councilwoman Ellen Busteed at the Monday meeting, proposed keeping the Brookside Park grant application on the table while also updating the current playground, which is at the "end of its useful life," while also doing drainage and walkway improvements.
Dario Chinigo, a councilmember who was passionately in favor of building a new space for the softball team at Veteran's Memorial Park, said Monday he felt the entire council "failed" the little girls in the community.
"I don't believe anything is going to happen in the future, although I will sit with bated breath waiting for it to happen," said Chinigo.
Councilwoman Lissa Montisano-Koen said she hopes the community will continue to rally about this issue going forward and "hold the board of education accountable."
Mayor Thomas Papaleo said he wants something done next year, whether that's allocating space for the girls from one of the Little League fields or formalizing an agreement from the board of education.
"It has to happen next year and it can't be put off anymore," said Papaleo.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: River Edge NJ plans softball field Veteran's Memorial Park