New Softball Field Stirs Debate

Construction of a new softball field at the township’s Lower Shore Road recreation area is well under way, and while many say they’re happy to see it built, others are calling the decision a political move meant to appease a vocal group of ball-playing voters from the Mirage development.

A combination of township workers and contractors began clearing a 1-acre site just south of the existing fields on Lower Shore Road a few weeks ago, Township Administrator David Breeden said at Monday’s Township Committee meeting.

Breeden said he expected the field to be complete around June 1. While he wasn’t able to provide the project’s cost, he said he was confident the majority of the expense would be covered by the township’s recreation assessment trust fund – a fund developers have in the past had to pay into when building new homes in the township.

Committeeman Leonard Morano criticized his fellow officials from the dais at Monday’s Township Committee meeting, saying the decision to build the field wasn’t made publicly.

“I’d like to know who authorized that,” Morano said. “We never had a meeting for it.”

Morano said that by building a ball field now, his fellow Committee members were appeasing voters from Mirage – a group of whom are members of a softball league that has recently been vocal about its desire for a field to play on. Until now, the league has had to travel to various sites and school fields.

“It’s not fair to build a field for Mirage,” Morano said. “That’s what we did. Let’s call an ace an ace.” The decision-making process didn’t involve him, he said. “It wasn’t done right. It certainly seems political to me. It’s a vote-getter.”

Phil Checchia, a candidate in the Republican primary for Township Committee, wanted to know why officials didn’t initiate the project when Barnegat’s youth travel baseball teams after a required them to find an alternative to playing on the fields on Barnegat Boulevard.

“The (youth) coaches were here asking for a field to play on,” Checchia said, and ultimately ended up playing in Waretown. “But yet when our good friends on that side of the Parkway came to ask for a field, all of a sudden the fields are starting to be built.”

But Deputy Mayor Alfonso Cirulli said the Committee has long recognized the need for more rec fields. Officials will continue to work to resolve the dispute between the Little League and the travel teams, he said, but in the meantime, the new Lower Shore field can be used by anyone.

“This is something that we’ve been working on… for years,” Cirulli said at the meeting. “We’ve needed softball fields for the youth and now also the seniors. There’s such a tremendous demand right now. We made the move on it.”

Pat Pipi, a captain in the Mirage softball league, agreed.

“The town now screams for it, for a place to play,” he said. And it’s not fair to say the Committee suddenly decided to do the Mirage players a favor and build them a field this spring, Pipi said. For years, many other groups have joined his league in asking the township to build a new softball field.

Pipi said he doesn’t know of any other towns Barnegat’s size that lack good, accessible softball fields.

“The population is growing literally every day,” he said. “Its time. I think the town sees that.”

Besides, said Pipi, “this is not just for us.” The field is available for any group that wants to use it, he pointed out. Portable fences could be used to adjust the field size for various types of play. And he and his league will do whatever they can to help out the youth teams and other groups, he said. If anybody understands the importance of getting kids outside playing, he said, it’s the Mirage league members – a group of die-hard players who cherish their own childhood ball memories.

“My father taught me how to hit a curve ball on a field growing up,” he said. “You don’t’ see it any more in Barnegat, because there’s nowhere to play.”