Field users mixed over land swap

Quality and use of proposed high school construction site debated.

By: Leon Tovey
   MONROE — Other than a sign posted on a telephone pole along Perrineville Road, there is nothing to indicate to the casual observer that the huge open field northeast of the intersection of Perrineville and Schoolhouse roads is one of the most controversial pieces of land in the entire township.
   The words "Proposed High School Site" in bold block letters are just visible through a cloud of spray paint someone added to the sign after it was posted.
   But the snowy silence of the field — or, more accurately: fields, six of them — on Monday afternoon made it hard to imagine the construction of a high school or any other human activity ever taking place on the 35-acre parcel of Thompson Park.
   Nevertheless, the question of what human activity should be allowed to take place on the parcel in the future has been hotly debated in the township and elsewhere in Middlesex County for much of the past two-and-a-half years.
   The county and the township want to exchange 152 acres of mostly sloped wooded land for the parcel, which is protected under the state Green Acres program and upon which the Board of Education wants to build a 365,000-square-foot high school.
   Opponents and proponents of the proposed exchange have disagreed about everything from the way the process has been handled to the quality and disposition of the land the township is offering. Debate has even sprung up about the quality of the 35 acres.
   The site is currently home to six soccer fields, which are used — predominantly in spring, summer and fall — by teams from the current township high school (located across Schoolhouse Road from the fields), the township soccer club and a number of other clubs from around the county.
   "I have spent as much time on those fields as anyone," Jerry Rosenberg said Nov. 21, during the first of two public hearings on the proposed exchange. "In the past 20 years I have watched them go from being some of the best in the state to now being among the worst I have seen."
   A past president of the Monroe Township Soccer Club who started playing and practicing on the fields in 1984, Dr. Rosenberg said a few days after the hearing that the deterioration of the current fields is part of the reason he supports the swap.
   The township has proposed building replacement fields near the intersection of Perrineville and Prospect Plains roads, roughly half-a-mile south of the fields that would be displaced.
   Township Engineer Ernie Feist said Thursday that those new fields would include at least one lighted field, parking, concessions and restrooms — amenities that are lacking at the current fields. Mr. Feist said detailed plans haven’t been drawn up for the facility, but he predicted the total cost would be under $400,000 and said the township would pursue state and county grants to offset most of that cost.
   Mr. Feist was quick to say that pursuing state and county funding would not be a way of shirking the township’s responsibility; if no grants were available, the township would cover the total cost of the project — if the diversion is approved.
   "If the township is offering to build new fields, I would welcome it," Dr. Rosenberg said. "A lit field in particular would change the way things work on those fields — it would be a chance for a fresh start, to better coordinate the way all the teams use the fields, to avoid some of the wear and tear we’ve seen on the old fields."
   Steve Haider, the current president of the Township Soccer Club said Thursday that the club has not taken a position on the exchange. He said that while he agrees with Dr. Rosenberg about the condition of the current fields and, as the father of future township high school students, sees the need for a new high school, he is ambivalent about the proposed exchange.
   He also observed that soccer players are not the only people who use the fields — a point that was driven home during the public hearings.
   "Monroe is in danger of losing its one remaining gem," Ryan Brown, a sophomore at the high school, said Dec. 4, during the second hearing. "I run cross country on those fields and while we need a school, I don’t think that’s the place to put it."
   East Brunswick resident Doug Brown, who is not related to Ryan Brown, also dismissed the idea that the fields’ use by soccer players be the determining factor in deciding their quality.
   Mr. Brown, who voiced his opposition to the swap during the first public hearing, is a member of the Raritan Valley Roadrunners running club. He said that while his organization has not yet taken an official position on the proposal, he and several other members of the club who run in the park oppose it.
   He said he runs there two or three times a week during the spring, summer and fall, snowshoes there five to six times each winter and sees nothing wrong with the condition of the fields.
   He also said he opposes the swap based on wider principles.
   "I pay taxes to the county and so do a lot of other people — we never got a say in this," Mr. Brown said. "They want to take my land for nothing and I don’t get a say?"