New playing fields may debut in spring at town's rec center

MANALAPAN - New playing fields that have been constructed at the Manalapan Recreation Center, Route 522, should be ready for use in the spring of 2009.

Township Engineer Greg Valesi told the News Transcript on June 25 that the installation of new playing fields has been completed.

Valesi said the construction phase of the recreation center expansion has been completed. The work was paid for through the issuance of about $4 million in bonds.

The project will provide for the 60-acre addition to the recreation center to yield three baseball fields (one full-size baseball field and two small baseball fields), one basketball court, a tot lot, two soccer fields (one synthetic turf field and one grass field), restrooms, parking lots and a fitness trail.

Valesi said this new section of the recreation center should be ready for play by the spring of 2009 once all of the remaining work has been completed.

He said the remaining work includes the installation of sports lighting and signs, the completion of walkways with lighting, fitness trails, a picnic pavilion, road and parking lot paving, the installation of the tot lot, fencing, the construction of the basketball court, landscaping, dugouts and bleachers.

Valesi said a splash pad may be installed as part of this phase.

When asked if he had any misgivings about the safety of the synthetic turf field that has been installed at the Manalapan Recreation Center, Valesi said, "Absolutely not."

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) last week called on the Consumer Product Safety Commission to investigate potentially hazardous lead levels in artificial turf fields.

Valesi said the type of artificial turf fields that are being held up for scrutiny and criticism by Menendez and other individuals are older artificial turf fields. He said there is no lead content in the synthetic turf field that has been purchased and installed at the Manalapan Recreation Center.