A Turf field and your Taxes

We’ve come full circle since the last time an unspecified bond ordinance resulted in the ‘Turf’ scandal. Holmdel Committeemen Mr. Critelli and Mr. Luccarelli voted down the capital improvement bond ordinance that was slated for the sorely needed road paving, fire, and EMS facilities improvements. They purported that Holmdel children’s recreational needs have been neglected over the years and they are taking a stand to change that by blocking this ordinance. They claim that adding an additional $1.5 million for a multi-use turf field would address that need.

Unfortunately, their reasoning does not paint a true picture of the facts.

Here are the facts:

1. In 2018, a town-wide survey indicated that our residents wanted more trails and bike paths and not turf Fields. The Turf field ranked very low in the town-wide survey.
2. In 2018, the HYAA (Holmdel Youth Athletic Association) requested $1.3 MM for recreational activities, which included turf infields for the baseball fields at Phillips Park. This was approved by the committee in 2019.
3. The HYAA did not request turf for the outfields, and they did not request a multi-use turf field.
4. In 2019 Committeeman Critelli, as the liaison to the recreation committee, requested the township committee extend the turf to the outfields at Phillips Park for an additional $700K. This was approved by the township committee in 2019.
5. At the time, when committeeman Critelli made that request, he never indicated to the committee that another multi-use turf field was a high priority, nor did he mention that it was next on the list. If he had done so, the committee at that time could have diverted the $700K that was used for the outfields at Phillips Park to a multi-use turf field.
6. Mr. Critelli has now blocked the bond ordinance for the much-needed road paving and EMS facilities improvement, claiming he needs to have the turf field for $1.5 million included in the capital budget.
7. A turf field costs more than $1.5 million. I made a presentation to the township showing that the present value of a turf field including the cost of maintenance every 10 years is over $2 Million.
8. Committeeman Critelli claims that our PILOT revenues will be sufficient to pay for this without addressing the huge debt burden that he and the previous township committee members had accumulated prior to 2020.

The township just converted $20MM out of $33MM in short-term debt that was accumulated prior to 2020. This conversion cost the township increased debt service costs that stand at $3.5MM. The township still needs to convert an additional $13MM in short-term debt. This could add another approximately $1MM in debt costs, bringing our total debt service costs to $5 MM including the new capital improvement bond. Additionally, our reserves need to increase proportionate to our debt to maintain a Triple A rating. We will need to set aside at least $4MM in reserves.

So, if our basic needs (to pay off our debt and maintain a Triple A rating) are at $9MM ($5MM +$4MM), but the PILOT only brings in, say, $4MM or $5MM, we will be forced to look elsewhere for the remaining just so we meet our basic obligations.

Given that everything hinges on the PILOT revenues and our debt service costs, the time to evaluate our second round of recreational needs should be after the conversion of all our short-term debt in 2022.

Painting ourselves into a corner now as Committeeman Critelli demands, without doing a proper analysis of our needs and our means, could force the township to raise our property taxes if our costs exceed our revenue.

…and we would be doing so for something that residents ranked as a low priority in the 2018 survey, and the HYAA did not indicate as a priority in its request in 2018.

Prakash Santhana

Holmdel Township Committeeman (2020-2022)