By Stephen Appezzato
OCEANPORT – Renovations to the Maria Gatta Community Park in the borough will soon be finalized, offering locals and visiting teams a brand-new multiuse sports park.
The borough began renovations on the park, which had been in decline for years, earlier this summer. The popular field complex located across from Monmouth Park Racetrack will be the new location for three artificial turf fields lined for soccer, field hockey and lacrosse matches. Work on the project is expected to be completed by the end of September.
“Those fields were really nothing more than an old, macadam parking lot with three of four inches of dirt, small rocks, bottle caps and shards of glass on top of it,” said Oceanport Mayor Jay Coffey. “Oceanport Recreation hadn’t used them for soccer since 2006 because of how bad they were and the Peninsula Soccer Club stopped playing games there several years ago because visiting teams refused to play there.”
In addition to the artificial turf fields, the park will have a new entrance, new parking and walkways in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. In total, the project is expected to cost up to $2.95 million.
Coffey said the council and recreation committee “crunched the numbers” and decided turf fields would be the best option for a number of reasons. Turf fields can be easily marked for multiple sports and “provide a level playing surface for the first time in the park’s history,” he said. Artificial turf also means no mowing and less maintenance for the borough’s Department of Public Works. With the renovation, an access road that bisected the field will be removed, maximizing playing area, Coffey noted.
The addition of the three fields will complement the borough’s other sports areas at the Community Center Park (also currently being renovated) and BlackBerry Bay Park, allowing for more activities, Coffey said.
“I think it’s going to pay immediate dividends because people will want to play there,” Coffey said.
Part of the renovation expense – $150,000 – will be funded through sports betting tax revenue from Monmouth Park Racetrack $150,000. According to Coffey, a large portion of the remaining cost will be covered by usage fees paid by “travel teams, nonrecreational leagues and tournaments.” He expects those funds to be substantial enough to offset the greater portion of the debt service associated with this park improvement project.”
“We take great pride in our parks, and we want people in town playing on our courts, fields and playgrounds and enjoying all of our recreational facilities. We kept our parks open and operational even at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and Oceanport’s governing body has prioritized both infrastructure improvement and annual maintenance of our entire park system,” he noted.
Ongoing refurbishment of other municipal parks includes the reconstruction of the baseball field at Community Center Park, as well as new backstop and safety fencing, team benches, ADA-accessible bleachers, tennis court fencing and benches, and other facility amenities. The project is partially funded by a $150,000 grant from the Monmouth County Municipal Open Space grant program. Community Center Park is expected to reopen in mid-October.
The article originally appeared in the September 8 – 14, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
