Comments on: Church Square Park Update

By: joeypoop

joeypoop — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 05:07:46 +0000

moproteus wrote:

What is it going to cost to maintain the Astro-Turf each season? Has that cost been factored in? Perhaps the city will do more back room deals to cover the continuing cost servicing an artificial surface in the park. Grass grows. But then again perhaps they will let it be, collecting dog feces, urine, and water from the rains.

You are assuming it will be maintained. Have you seen the rubber flooring in the Toddler Park that has started lifting up? It has not been repaired, the little spot that needs to be repaired has been spreading.

By: mcspacebar

mcspacebar — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 19:26:39 +0000

I’m wondering what it’s like when it gets wet or has some snow/ice on it.
Does that make it a complete death trap?

By: krewedetat

krewedetat — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 17:42:21 +0000

moproteus wrote:

You were quoting me not ‘ShhhDontTell.’

Sorry, I deleted the wrong comment number… I agree with you on how slippery the stuff is…

By: moproteus

moproteus — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 16:50:26 +0000

YipYap wrote:

Here is a reference chart on surface tempatures measured by Penn State. Astoundingly the Astro Turf can be 35-60 degrees hotter then the air temp.

http://cropsoil.psu.edu/mcnitt/infill7a.cfm

Lots of good stuff on this site.

I and several other people have been saying how f@#king hot this synthetic surface can get. I was stunned myself when I touched and knelt on it. It WILL be an issue.

By: moproteus

moproteus — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 16:47:17 +0000

You were quoting me not ‘ShhhDontTell.’ Anyway, the cleats is my point about how badly this turf slips. They get this stupid fake turf for children to play soccer or other team games and all they will be doing is slipping and sliding. The group of men I saw playing touch football were slipping like crazy. But then again they were in socks. Maybe they couldn’t run in their regular shoes on the stuff. The mayor commissioned the artificial turf to look like grass without thinking about the effectiveness in how it would hold up under ‘play.’ This whole Astro-turf thing has been a mess especially since they should NOT be putting artificial turf down in a park to serve as a ‘field’ for soccer.

By: YipYap

YipYap — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 16:45:22 +0000

Here is a reference chart on surface tempatures measured by Penn State. Astoundingly the Astro Turf can be 35-60 degrees hotter then the air temp.

http://cropsoil.psu.edu/mcnitt/infill7a.cfm

Lots of good stuff on this site.

By: krewedetat

krewedetat — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 16:27:13 +0000

ShhhDontTell wrote:

The shorter cropped astro-turf on the soccer fields allow easier movement for people and balls. When you step on this turf it has ‘blades of grass’ that are about 1 1/2 inches long which means when you step on it they move either to the left of right and cause a slight slipping sensation. It would be better to walk or play on it in cleats for a better grip.

You just reminded me of something. When my younger daughter started playing soccer, we had to get her cleats because she was slipping all over the astroturf. We did not have to do this with our older child who played on grass.

If the point of the astroturf is to have a place for kids to play pick up games, this is crazy. Do they all have to carry cleats now so they don’t kill themselves on the turf?

By: Indiecom@aol.com

Indiecom@aol.com — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 16:09:43 +0000

Check out Hoboken’s website and the letter posted by Mayor Robers about Church Square Park: A Community Jewel on the home page

http://www.hobokennj.org/

yeah, yeah….the “community jewel” that has been destroyed!

By: moproteus

moproteus — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 15:33:31 +0000

westy wrote:

A point of reference.

If the City Council and the Mayor had bee able to get their act together two years ago the taxpayers would not be paying $100,000.00 a month in interest payments on the Muni garage to plug the hole they left in the City budget.

Then we could have used the money to properly take care of our existing parks.

Think of how nice our parks could have been with $2,400,000.00 of improvements.

So true!! That $130,000 does sting and

Colonblow wrote:

…it’s called a campaign payback spent with your tax dollars (you can call Mayor Roberts and thank him personally). That doesn’t include what it will cost to maintain it. Oops, how silly of me. They won’t maintain it. They’ll let it fall apart so they’ll then have to pay the same campaign contributor another $130,000 to replace it for “the safety of the children”. It’s all done for the children, can’t you see that, Rapperd. Isn’t $130,000 worth it for the children? Of course, if you’re not for the Astroturf, you’re not for the children.

Even MORE true!!

By: westy

westy — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 14:54:49 +0000

A point of reference.

If the City Council and the Mayor had bee able to get their act together two years ago the taxpayers would not be paying $100,000.00 a month in interest payments on the Muni garage to plug the hole they left in the City budget.

Then we could have used the money to properly take care of our existing parks.

Think of how nice our parks could have been with $2,400,000.00 of improvements.

So a big raspberry to Mayor Roberts and his administration , CPs Camarrano, Castalano, Giachi, LaBruno and Russo. You failed us again.