RHS Football Field

This is from my pals over at the Ridgewood Patch:

"Neighbor of the high school Tom Kossoff says he's concerned about health implications of dust related to the cleaning of the high school fields. Kossoff maintains the district should receive a citation for having the dust affect neighbors. Additionally, he expressed concern that the school didn't lock gates that allowed students to be exposed to the dust."

Photo Credit Tom Kossoff

I would say "concerned" is putting it mildly. I bet he is furious and wishes the school still played on a grass football field!

The grass field flooded out on more than one occasion while I was growing up but "astroturf" was relatively new and wasn't ever considered an option in those days. My guess is that if people had seen the health hazard created by the method used to clean the field this month, plans for the turf would been shelved. Admittedly, hindsight is always 100% correct so I hope a less noxious solution is proposed the next time we have a flood.

My rather conventional thinking about turf versus grass always supposed the replacement of grass field was supposed to reduce costs and offer a better guarantee that the field would be available after a heavy rain. I can't produce statistics to show how much we used to spend to restore the football field after a heavy rain or even how much this month's affair will cost in the end after litigation is complete. Though I did find on the Internet the minutes from a Village Special Meeting in 2007 to discuss the Parks and Recreation Master Plan. The following statistics were presented by Bard Fresenberg, an Extension Turf Grass specialist at the University of Missouri. He "completed a cost analysis over 16 years stating that a natural soil based field would cost $33, 5000 to maintain; a sand cap grass field would cost $49,000; a basic synthetic field would cost $65,800 and a premium synthetic field would cost $109,000. Mr. Fresenberg concluded that a public agency could take the same money it would cost to install a synthetic field and instead put in a sand-capped field and put the remaining money into a maintenance fund with recurring bond value resulting in a premium natural grass field with most of the maintenance costs covered."

I will now say, half-jokingly, that the argument against turf will always be the same: Grass doesn't ever have to be "cleaned" and it will withstand a flood just as well as the turf does, which is to say, not very well.

One other note:
"the National Football League (NFL) Report of 2004 states that 100% of football players prefer natural grass fields rather than artificial turf."

In the end I say we might listen more carefully to what the Professionals think about turf.

That Used To Be Us

This blog in a small way is a testimony to my amazement, each and every day, with what lies buried in my mind. Until one day, for no particular reason it rises up, and makes itself known.


It's funny how we all started under the well meaning care of our parents. Then puberty arrives and all bets were off. Our parents who had once seemed so brilliant and all-knowing suddenly seemed, in our young and evolving minds, less than bright. And this impression only grows stronger as we journey through our teens and early twenties.

Fortunately, somewhere after college and before we have our first grandchild  is born, we realize our parents have regained their senses and now give us only first class advice!

If you agree with me please send my best to your parents. They surely deserve it. 

Does Ridgewood Need a Post Office?

This would have been a silly question even as few as ten years ago. Now with the United States Post Office hemorrhaging money and talks of eliminating Saturday service and small rural post offices, it is not such a farfetched idea.

It is not an idea I favor, as these are solid middle class jobs which we are speaking about. These are the kind of jobs which people for generations have used to acquire their share of the American Dream: a house, family with children who plan to go to college, and enough money to retire on once their working days were completed.

I do favor re-inventing the US Postal Service. It is not the Pony Express, an institution doomed once faster means of transportation became available. The US Postal Service is an institution with a mission which needs to be refined; this is what I mean by re-inventing the Postal Service. Then why do our leaders, in this case the leader of the USPS, always consider gutting or eliminating long time public institutions first and not consider what other purpose this fully functioning, communications and transportation company might aspire to. We have relied upon the USPS for years and until recently they were pulling their own weight, while at the same time providing an anchor to many communities. Doesn't this alone give them and us a mandate to fix them for the 21st century?

I'll be the first to admit that I use very few stamps these days. Though I do find it re-assuring to see letter carriers walking the streets pushing their four wheeled mail bags in front of them. When we were kids these men and women, in all kinds of weather, just like their motto says, would be out on these streets keeping an eye out for things which were out of the ordinary, in addition to delivering letters and packages. This is not to say the UPS and Fedex folks in their big trucks don't do the same. Though they do it at high speed and with timers ticking away inside their trucks as a constant reminder to pick up the pace. The same could never be said of the US Postal Service, especially if you have waited on line in a postal office like mine in Forest Hills, NY. There you leave swearing that you will never, ever use the Postal Service again, and even wish they had a timer reminding them to pick up the pace.

How did we come to this situation any how? Was it the speed of UPS and Fedex, the long lines in post offices, the advent of email and online billpaying, or some combination of them all which turned our minds towards hasty thoughts of eliminating the US Postal Services? Look, I realize Ridgewood's Post Office is far down on the list of post offices proposed for closing. I also know that besides delivering mail and packages, the USPS handles passport applications, and maintains the Zip Code system, without which Fedex and UPS could not function. These jobs could be outsourced to another agency or two.

Though the fact remains US Post Offices are anchors in countless small communities, and not just places people visit for their mail when home delivery is unfeasible. This is not just an issue of inconvenience. It’s about how closing post offices will hurt neighborhoods and the downtown business district. It's how closing the post office will gradually destroy people's connection to their home town. Seen in the vacuum of being totally committed to efficiency and profit it's easy to pull the plug on the USPS.

Let's keep in mind that Post Offices do still provide places where local issues are discussed and debated. These are irreplaceable locales which private enterprise will not try to re-build once they are in charge of the 1 Trillion Dollar business of delivering mail. It may be inconvenient to the number crunchers, but when people feel rooted to a particular place, when they feel loyal to a town or a neighborhood doesn't that make them better citizens? doesn't that make them better customers for our local businesses?