Kinnelon to 'Team Up to Clean Up' Borough Fields

In anticipation of spring and the recreation sports season, several community organizations will be joining forces for a day of field cleanup and beautification at the three recreation fields in the borough on March 24.

Recreation Lacrosse Coach Mike Elefonte is spearheading the event, funded through a Clean Communities grant, which will be held for the first time in the borough this year. From 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., volunteers will be picking up trash, painting buildings and spreading awareness about keeping the facilities clean at the Kinnelon Recreation Park, Boonton Avenue fields and fields behind the Kinnelon Municipal Building on Kinnelon Road. The event's slogan and name is "Team Up to Clean Up."

"'Team Up to Clean Up' is the launch of a boroughwide campaign aimed at motivating, educating and taking pride in the community in which we all live and play," according to the event's flier.

Elefonte said awareness is an important element of the project, particularly since Earth Day is approaching and because many Kinnelon residents utilize the facilities.

"Let's just take some pride in the fields that we have," he said.

As far as some of the things the volunteers will be picking up, Elefonte said the wind often blows garbage that is left on the fields into the woods and streams that surround them. Water bottles, pieces of paper and other trash can be seen around the fields. In addition to the cleanup, Elefonte said the borough will be using some of the grant funding to purchase new trash receptacles with the "Team Up to Clean Up" slogan on them.

Supplies will be provided on site and volunteers will be able to earn community service hours for their time spent on the project.

Councilman Jim Freda, who is also helping to organize the event, said about 20 volunteers have already signed up in addition to most of the recreation sports teams. church confirmation classes have also asked how they can get involved and Freda said the local Boy Scout troops are considering working on the installation of flower boxes at the fields as a project.

While cleaning the fields will help enhance their appearance, Freda has also said the conditions of the fields, specifically the field behind the municipal building, must be addressed.

"The fields, as we all know, are in depolorable condition," he said at the March 8 council meeting. "We need to have a game plan, as a council, on what we're going to to do with these fields."

Freda has already been instrumental in to fund artificial turf installation on the field. But the field behind the municipal building has been problematic for the borough as well, as Freda has reported some referees have circled areas of danger on the field with spray paint and declared the field too dangerous to play on.

In order to restore that field, Freda said the borough would have to invest in drainage work and more dirt, leaving the field to sit for a period of time as well for more grass to grow. Freda said the total cost for the restoration of the field is between $200,000 and $300,000.

At the same time, the borough is in the process of . Councilman Dan O'Dougherty, liaison to the Department of Public Works, said the department received estimates that indicate to remove the surface of the rink would cost between $16,000 and $18,000 and to place top soil and fill on the surface would cost an additional $9,000.