Citizens split down middle on $2.6M upgrade
LINWOOD — City Council asked voters how they feel about spending $2.6 million on recreation upgrades and found they were opposed to the idea by a very small margin.
Councilman Eric Ford said it’s now up to the elected officials to decide how to move forward on the proposal to install an artificial turf field at All Wars Memorial Park for about $1.6 million while upgrading the lighting system to high-efficiency LED bulbs for about $1 million.
The issue failed 1,404 to 1,376, just 28 votes separating those against the proposal from those for it.
According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of about 7,100 residents, 1,420 of whom are younger than 18. That leaves 5,680 people of voting age, and nearly 2,800 answered the ballot question, about 50 percent. Therefore, about half the people in the city are half against the proposal and half are for the proposal.
Ford said the plan was to “gauge the temperature” of the public on the issue. For context, he said, a school board referendum regarding a new field at Mainland Regional High School about 15 years ago “failed miserably, like 80 to 20 against.”
“Now it’s our job to look at the feasibility and to do the right thing,” he said. “We have to determine now whether we want to go forward.”
Ford said it’s pretty clear that about half of the city is going to be upset regardless of which choice City Council makes.
“Some may value spending money in different areas than other folks,” he said.
Park Director Tim Donovan said dozens of people packed City Council chambers Nov. 9 “to express their frustration with the vote and plan on being there again Nov. 23 to push council to make the decision anyway because it is nonbinding.”
He said those in the audience spoke about moving to the city for its recreational and other amenities.
Donovan said some questioned whether the lights should have been excluded from the ballot question since the city will have to replace them anyway.
Ford disagreed, saying he believes in transparency.
“The one thing you don’t want to do is to have folks feel like they didn’t have all of the information,” he said.
Although the lighting will need to be upgraded in the very near future — Ford said it was installed mostly in 1998 with part in 2000 — because it is at the end of its useful life.
“I feel that sent the wrong message to put the turf field on the ballot and next year build a turf field and build lights,” he said. “The perception of that would not have been good.”
Ford said the city seal lists recreation, education and family values as its guiding principles.
“It’s on our seal for a reason, that’s always been important to the city,” he said, noting that the project would boost not only recreation but the entire city.
“That’s why people come to Linwood and choose Linwood from the surrounding communities,” Ford said. “What separates us is our school system, recreation and family values. It was time to reinvest in one of those and that’s what generated the ballot question.”
He said City Council would discuss the pros and cons and make a decision.
“We have an awesome council and we will work together to come up with what’s best for Linwood,” Ford said. “It’s a tough one but that’s why we chose to do what we’re doing.”
Donovan said he would continue to advocate for moving ahead with the proposal.
“My next step is to email council and recommend they still move forward with it. I’m still recommending that it get done,” Donovan said.
He noted that the Linwood panthers played in two championship games last weekend that were supposed to be held at St. Augustine Prep. When that plan fell through, he said, John Franchini, president of the Panthers, suggested holding the games in Linwood but the Jersey Shore Youth Football League said that due to rain Friday, “they didn’t feel our field would be playable so we had to play in Hammonton.”
“Those are the kinds of things that bother me,” he said. “We could be hosting our own championship games.”
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff