$92K Drainage, Field Improvements Coming To Ridge High School

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — After years of waiting and concerns from sports teams, drainage and field improvements are finally coming to the Ridge High School Varsity Field Complex.

At the March 24 meeting, the Bernards Township Board of Education approved an agreement with Boswell Engineering to proceed with the soil borings, geotechnical report ($10,400), and design specifications for the drainage and field improvements ($82,400) at the Ridge High School Varsity Field Complex.

The approval follows a long-awaited approval from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

"We have been waiting for this from the state since September 2023," said Board member Nimish Amin at the meeting. "With the approval we recommend to the full board... to move forward with phases 3 and 4 of the project with Boswell to design the specs and bid documents options."

Board member David Shaw said that after the wait he is "definitely very happy that we can move forward with [the field improvements] now."

With respect to the Board's school budget woes, board member Keith Molinari reassured residents about the project.

"We've had sports team after sports team telling us how these fields need to be redone, so just in the context of what is going on with the budget. That money is already there," said Molinari. "And even though times are tough, we will have to maintain our facilities and we still have to provide sports fields that our student athletes can play on. So in my mind that was a need, not a want, getting that field done and I’m glad it's starting to come to fruition."

The funds for this project are being withdrawn from the district’s capital reserve account.

Amin said the new turf field would be "either this September, the following September or the summer of 2026, depending on pricing and speed of other approvals."

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