Light the Lights, But Only Until 10 p.m.

The stadium-style lights at three recreational facilities in Scotch Plains must be turned-off by 10 p.m., according to a new ordinance passed by the Township Council Tuesday night.  The affected facilities are the soccer and lacrosse fields behind the Southside fire station at Martine Avenue and Terrill Road, the baseball and soccer field in front of the Union County Police Academy on Terrill Road, and the tennis courts in Kramer Park.

"This codifies what has been a general policy and practice in the Recreation Department," said Councilman Jeffrey Strauss, who serves as the council's liaison to the Recreation Department and introduced the resolution Tuesday night.

Individual leagues and teams pay for the lights, the Council and Recreation Department said. The ordinance does not affect the proposed stadium-style lights at Union Catholic High School's baseball field.

Residents who attended the meeting said they were pleased that the council set-down formal rules for the lights, but some argued that 10 p.m. was too late. 

Council members and Recreation Commission director Raymond Poerio, however, emphasized that 10 p.m. would remain the "outer limit" of when the lights would be shut off. 

"Nothing is going to change in terms of operations," Poerio said. "What this allows us is flexibility."

As Councilman Dominick Bratti explained, games and activities will still be scheduled as normal, but the 10 p.m. deadline "allows people to leave the field, walk to their cars, etcetera," without the lights turning off. 

In addition, the 10 p.m. deadline "allows us to put gaps between the games and compensate for delays, such as by inclement weather," said Chris DeMaria, president of the Scotch Plains-Fanwood Soccer Association, which uses the lit fields. 

Recreation Department commissioners will retain sole control over the lights, Poerio said, and they will turn the lights on or off only if contacted by a league's commissioner or scheduler. In other words, a team's coach or parents cannot tell the Recreation Department to switch the lights on, off or leave them on.

If a league commissioner instructs the Recreation Department to leave the lights on past 10 p.m., and if the Recreation Department complies, the league risks a fine of up to $1,000, the Council said. "This now puts a vehicle in place," Poerio said. "[Residents] can call the police, there's a law on the books and the police can deal with it."