Flooded Fields Will Force Ridgewood Sports Teams To Play Elsewhere: Meeting Scheduled

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — After a series of rainstorms soaked Bergen County this summer, Ridgewood's athletic fields will not be ready for football teams and others to use this fall, the school staff announced on Thursday.

Now the superintendent will hold a virtual meeting Tuesday night about the situation.

On Thursday night, the district sent out a letter to the school community saying, "This morning, we received the results of GMAX testing that was recently completed for both Stadium Field and Stevens Field. Both fields passed GMAX testing last April as part of our routine field inspections.

"Unfortunately, at this time both fields have failed GMAX testing, which measures a surface's shock absorption and safety for play."

District officials said they had brought other vendors to confirm the situation and had hired other experts to clean and address silt buildup on the fields.

"Despite this work, the most recent round of GMAX testing shows that both fields still do not meet safety standards for play," district officials said. "As a result, Stadium Field and Stevens Field will remain closed until further notice. We understand this is disappointing, and we want to assure everyone that we've pursued every avenue available to get these fields safely reopened."

Officials said Athletic Director Keith Cook is looking for new locations for practices and games.

Update

On Friday afternoon, Superintendent Marc Schwarz elaborated and gave details of an upcoming meeting.

"Certain areas of the fields did not pass their impact testing (gmax testing), which measures the extent to which the field can absorb shock," he explained. "We proceeded with additional treatments and initially received passing scores after our recent remediation round. To ensure student safety, we decided to have a third party confirm the test results before reopening. Unfortunately, the most recent test did not confirm the fields were safe for play."

He said the district "will spare no effort or resources to restore our fields."

The superintendent will host a special virtual "Superintendent Coffee" on Tuesday at 7 p.m. to share updates.

Join the virtual coffee here.