Cougar Field Court Date Moved to March 18

The court date in the ongoing has been delayed until Mar. 18, officials from the School District of the Chathams said Thursday.

A hearing before Morris County Superior Court Judge W. Hunt Dumont had been scheduled in February but .

was filed by Madison residents calling themselves the Cougar Field Neighborhood Preservation Association, and the Borough of Madison .

It names Chatham Township as the defendant and alleges that at a Township Committee meeting on June 24, 2010 was established solely to help the School District of the Chathams and the Chatham High School Athletic Boosters place lights at Cougar Field.

The plaintiffs, Chatham Superintendent Jim O’Neill told the Board of Education in January, “apparently intend to use significant resources and legal impediments” to keep the lights at Cougar Field from being installed.

According to an attorney for Madison, Joseph Mezzacca said that in 2008, it was Dumont who ruled a plan to light Cougar Field by the School District of the Chathams would need approval from the Madison Borough, Chatham Township and Chatham Borough planning boards. The property Cougar Field sits on spans all three municipalities.

Dumont also heard another case regarding Cougar Field in 2008.