Poles gone, fields ready 09/08/07 • By ANDREA EILENBERGER • The Express-Times LOPATCONG TWP. | Standing on the turf field Thursday, Phillipsburg Athletic Director Tom Fisher was pleased to point out where an intrusive utility pole once stood. By Friday, he was happier to announce the district's field was ready for that afternoon's field hockey game. It marks the season's first field hockey game and the first game played on the field. "It's exciting for the student athletes and the coaches to finally play on it, and to have a site that's state of the art," Fisher said. The field is one of six built a little more than two years ago near Belvidere Road and Roseberry Street, just below where the state-promised but unfunded high school should sit. This year, the turf field will be used for some sports' practices and games for field hockey, boys and girls' soccer and lacrosse in the spring. Fisher said the district gained access to the fields for full-time practices Aug. 20. Until about two weeks ago, utility poles -- including one equipped with a transformer -- rendered half of the field unplayable. At one end, a pole stood about five yards inside the soccer field and about a foot and a half inside the field hockey field. Another pole stood close to the field's border. They were part of a system that followed an old road on the property, Fisher said. District Business Administrator Bill Poch said the contract for the field work was awarded about June 2005. Pole relocation was intended to be part of a subsequent round of bids in August, which included road widening near the poles and building the new high school. Before that could happen, the state agency handling the project announced in July that it was out of money. Phillipsburg's new school has remained in the lurch. School board President Paul Rummerfield said the state moved ahead on plans for the turf field with the intent to deal with the poles later. Nobody, not even state officials, "felt the pole was going to be there as long as it was," Rummerfield said. Sal Patti, school board member and athletic committee chairman, said there had been "a lot of disappointment initially" that the new field wasn't ready. "But now there's a lot of excitement," Patti said. Friday morning, turf company FieldTurf patched up the spots where the poles and guy wires once stood. Poch said removing and relocating the poles cost $133,915. The state agency charged with overseeing the facilities project, the Schools Development Authority, paid for the work. It took more than a year to hash out the details, including who would foot the bill. School officials had several meetings with state representatives, the firm managing the project and engineers, Poch said. Jersey Central Power and Light also needed to be involved. The involved parties wanted to ensure the poles wouldn't have to be moved again, Poch said. "It took time to put all the things in line," said Kevin McElroy, Schools Development Authority spokesman. The district leases the fields from the state for $1 per year until the new school is built, but the district is maintaining them. Reporter Andrea Eilenberger can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by e-mail at aeilenberger@express-times.com.