Hopatcong Days Delays Field Investigation

Written by Michael Daigle

Preparations for last weekend’s Hopatcong Days festival have slowed the investigation into the new T-ball field at Nariticong Field, but Administrator Robert Elia said last week he will get to the bottom of the mystery.

One thing is for certain, he said; “It is there.”

Councilman John Young brought the existence of the field to the attention on the Borough Council at Wednesday’s meeting.

He said a fourth infield and backstop had been constructed at one of the baseball fields at the Naritcong Field without the permission of the borough.

Young said the neither the recreation committee nor the council had been approached about building a field, and neither body approved it.

Elia said new field is for T-ball, played by 4-year-olds, and takes up a small corner of left field. It appears to be a field intended for use by the Hopatcong Little League.

Elia said because of the preparations for the three-day weekend festival that began Friday, he had not had a chance to discuss the new field with public works director Rob Jobeless.

One of the questions he will be asking, Elia said, is whether the field’s builder did actually contact the borough in some fashion, and that contact was not passed through to the proper department.

Cathy Bowen, president of the Hopatcong Little League executive board, declined to comment initially, but later posted on Patch and sent a letter to the editor explaining that the League did, in fact, build the field. 

"If Little League has skipped or omitted any steps that needed to be taken, we apologize for not being aware of the process," Bowen said in her letter. 

The real issue, according to Young, is that the changes were made without anyone in town government being consulted.

“We have to follow our own resolutions, ordinances and procedures,” Young said. “There should be repercussions.”

By rights, the field should be torn up, Young said, but since  that would cause harm to the children who use it, that is not  really an option.

He termed the construction of the new field without permission, “Inexcusable.”