The first step towards field lights at both West Windsor-Plainsboro School District High Schools will likely be approved by the school board — despite the objections of neighboring residents — on Tuesday February 9.
The school board is expected to vote on a resolution that would give the West Windsor-Plainsboro Athletic Foundation the go-ahead to raise money to fund lighting for the playing fields at High Schools North and South.
But residents living in the neighborhoods surrounding the two high school continued to voice opposition to the idea and took offense to what they believe was a “trivializing” of their concerns by board members.
Genevieve Stiefel, a resident of Nassau Place in West Windsor, said she had heard that board members had made comments outside of the public meeting, questioning why residents moved to the area near the high school if they did not want to be disturbed by outdoor school activities. Stiefel said residents who live there had built their homes before the high school was even planned.
“How can you justify firing the lowest paid employees and funding athletic lights? Where are your priorities?” Stiefel asked, referencing the board’s possible privatization of the district’s custodial and maintenance services.
Referring to board members’ comments in favor of the idea at a previous meeting, Canoe Brook Drive resident Steven Campanella said that “building a sense of community” was a noble goal. However, at the at the same time, the board voted to “deprive” employees of the district “of their livelihood,” said Campanella, referencing the board’s decision last month to hire a consultant, Edvocate, to design bid specifications related to the outsourcing of the district’s custodial services.
Another Canoe Brook Drive resident said she felt a “strong community should share the same interests — there shouldn’t be some people gaining and some people losing. It shouldn’t be divided at this time.” Instead, the board should consider (West Windsor) Community Park as an alternative.
Other residents criticized the work of the independent committee charged by the board with finding the pros and cons of field light installation. That committee submitted a report in December based on its research.
Ravi Jumani, of Blossom Hill Drive, which faces the back of the High School North playing fields, said the committee failed to contact any of the residents living around the school for their opinions.
Jordan Moses, of Canoe Brook Drive, said installation of the field lights “comes with serious problems and ramifications.” She also attacked the onjectivity of the independent committee, saying that of the four parents on the committee, two had children in the athletic program.
Litter, speeding cars down local streets, and vandalism will come with field lighting, Moses said, adding that she can picture a racetrack by day, with advertisements along the fields (proposed to be used to pay for the lighting), and a circus by night. Pointing to South Principal Charles Rudnick’s opposition to the field lights, she said he “understands the negatives outweigh the positives.”
“I am heartened to see the real issues are being addressed. The athletic department can now work out its scheduling problems,” she said sarcastically.
West Windsor Township Council President George Borek also spoke out against the field light installation, but cited a different reason: an unresolved situation already affecting residents on Penn Lyle Road, who have been burdened with lights shining into their homes for the past two and a half years, ever since High School South was renovated and the addition was added. “If we put the lights in, it’s only going to create more havoc there. You haven’t taken care of that issue, and now you’re going to create a bigger problem,” he said.
Still, board members emphasized that even though the resolution is on the agenda to approve fundraising for the lights, they have not made a decision regarding the actual installation. That will come once the fundraising is complete, a cost analysis is done and more financial information provided, and policies are written to address the residents’ concerns and to set strict limits on field use once lights are installed.
Board President Hemant Marathe said the resolution was just the beginning of the process and that the board’s administration and facilities committee would be writing the policies. Marathe did, however, take the blame for the independent committee’s failure to contact High School North neighbors, saying he overlooked E-mails from residents in those neighborhoods during the process.
Board vice president Robert Johnson said he “certainly never meant to
trivialize the concerns of my neighbors,” when he commented in favor of the lights during a previous meeting. He said what he meant to say was that “I saw no evidence that the installation of lights would decrease property values.”
Johnson said he felt the “board needed to, in some formal fashion, approve or stop the efforts for fundraising” by the West Windsor-Plainsboro athletic foundation, which has requested direction from the board. He proposed the idea of passing a resolution at the meeting on Tuesday, February 9.
Board member Ellen Walsh said the board is most concerned with setting policies that will allow “reasonable usage” of the fields with the new lighting.
Missing from the meeting were the proponents of the field light installation, who voiced their support during an earlier meeting.
The effort to install field lights at the high schools began during the summer, when members of the independent committee, including Skip Evans, Janet reenman, Elliott Korsen, and Jeffrey Miller, interviewed various stakeholders and conducted their own research.
The Independent Field Lights Committee, commissioned to analyze whether to support a private proposal to raise funds to install the lights, did not make a recommendation about whether or not to do the actual installation of the field lights. But in the report, the committee wrote that Pat Boyle and Manny Efstathios, the two residents who approached the board in the summer with the idea, told them that the installation of the lights would cost between $240,000 and $260,000 using energy-efficient lighting with a 25-year guarantee and that auxiliary lighting would probably also be required.
The group of concerned neighbors — Deane Bornheimer, Paul Van Der Werf, Neale Campanella, Alexandra Lawrence, Donna Tillson, and Genevieve Stiefel — living adjacent to South “have indicated that they would not support the installation of lights under any conditions,” the report stated. “This group is a very vocal opposition who has indicated that legal action is a potential option.”
One alternative mentioned by the committee was to install lights only on the fields at High School North for use by both schools.
The report did mention, however, that even though the funds would be raised privately, the community would be required to bear additional costs, including auxiliary lighting, ongoing operations, and maintenance expenses such as electricity, the committee reported. However, the report also pointed out that these costs would be offset by eliminating the costs of using other lighted county facilities.
The committee also urged the board to address safety and security concerns, specifically as they relate to the impact on the adjacent neighborhoods when an evening event on a lighted field brings large groups of people to the school facility.
During the interviews, neighbors told the committee that they were most concerned about noise generated by the public address announcers and marching bands. The residents also told the committee that currently, even during daytime events, “there is a fair amount of smoking, drinking, and general mischief that goes on in the area behind the visitor’s side of the football field and behind the concessions stand at South,” and neighbors feel the problems will worsen if more nighttime games are added.
The neighbors also said they were concerned about the financial impact of having the police department providing additional security for night games. Academic impact was also a concern for the neighbors, who said the students are currently stretched to the limit with a demanding academic workload and extracurricular activities.
The independent committee also spoke to realtors, who told them they did not believe that the installation of lights would have a significant effect on property values.
The committee also contacted five other Mercer County police chiefs, in municipalities whose high schools have lighted fields. Those chiefs as well as those in West Windsor and Plainsboro said they did not feel holding the events at night would impose an additional security concern.
Rudnick told the committee he felt the negatives of installing the lights outweighed the positives and that the lights would create more wear on the turf fields, possibly increase misbehavior at the events, and impact academics.
North principal Michael Zapicchi, however, said the lights would create greater opportunities for parents and students, who will be able to participate in other afternoon and evening activities. He also suggested graduation could be held on the fields if there were adequate lighting.
