Township Will Rent Lights for Memorial Park

The Maplewood Township Committee approved a resolution on Tuesday to rent temporary lighting for the south field at Memorial Park, at a cost not to exceed $28,000. The lights would enable local sports teams such as Cougar Soccer to hold night practices.

The resolution passed 4-1, with Committeeman Marlon Brownlee dissenting. Brownlee cited concerns about the large range of the cost estimate, which was between $16,000 - 28,000. "It's not an insignificant amount of money," he said.

Mayor Vic DeLuca also expressed concern about the range -- "It's kind of like a blank check," he said -- but he noted, "We do not have a lit field in this town." He asked Township Administrator Joseph Manning to request a more specific estimate from the Recreation Department.

Space is tight this season because DeHart Field is unusable until at least the end of the year.

"We find ourselves in a real space crunch here," said Committeeman Jerry Ryan, who said he had been collaborating with the South Orange Board of Trustees and the South Orange - Maplewood School District to accommodate practices.

In other business, the committee discussed a proposed ordinance to allow residents to keep honeybees and to potentially allow the Maplewood Community Garden to keep beehives in one of their gardens. The committee agreed to discuss the issue further at the next meeting on October 2.

That meeting also will feature an information session with representatives from Appraisal Systems, Inc., which is conducting the township's tax reassessment, route: {:controller=>"articles", :action=>"show", :id=>"tc-meeting-9-4"} -->. The public will be able to ask questions about the process in person, via email (livemeeting@twp.maplewood.nj.us) or by phone (973-762-8120, ext. 4902 or 4903). The