The Hillbillies’ first home football game is this Saturday, September 22, and the team will be back on the field that Verona High School used in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, workers from the Board of Education and Department of Public Works joined a rental equipment company to set up the bleachers, portable toilets and fences.
The switch from Sellitto Field back to Doc Goeltz field was made necessary by problems that developed in the upper field just before school opened. A radar scan of the field closest to the high school has uncovered metal underground, weak ground in the end zone and potentially a second well shaft near the first that opened up in August. The troubles have already cost Verona $10,000 for the radar scan and a possible $25,000 in rental equipment. The bleachers on the upper field could not be relocated to the lower field because they do not meet the code for what would be considered a new installation.
Township Manager Joe Martin said there is no additional cost to having DPW workers on the job because they can be temporarily diverted from other work. “Thankfully, we don’t yet have leaves to rake or snow to shovel,” he said. The town and Board of Education will also be saving money by using a town trailer to hold up the scoreboard, instead of a permanent installation. After each game the scoreboard can be hauled back to the DPW garage, which should safeguard it from vandalism. Martin said that the bleachers will be taken down once football season is over.
The home opener is at 1 p.m. on Saturday. The game will also be the first opportunity for the public to see the complete halftime show of the Marching Maroon and White, which this year is “Romeo & Juliet”.
The Times today says that the township is paying 50% of the anticipated costs of this field expense. And township employees can be diverted from other work temporarily? Maybe it’s time to have the town take over all maintenance and grounds upkeep since they seem to be doing it more and more to help the BOE out and always seem to have men available. Where is the town getting the money to pay 50% of this expense? Is there extra money in the township budget? Maybe if the BOE didn’t spend that $40K on legal fees to keep an ex -long time employee out of work they would not have to take more taxpayers money from the town. Sort of like double dipping isn’t it?