Feds press for completion of Brookside Park fields

SUSSEX - The feds are pushing Sussex Borough to finish restoring ball fields at Brookside Park or risk losing the $25,000 it provided for the work. It all began in April 2007, when a Nor’easter dumped up to nine inches of rain on Sussex County. Sussex Borough applied for and received approximately $25,000 in aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help restore ball fields in low-lying Brookside Park which were damaged by flooding. Now, after two years of on-and-off discussions between the borough and two local sports leagues about restoring the fields, FEMA is pushing the borough to finish the job by December or risk losing the money. “We have to move on this quickly,” said Sussex Borough Mayor Chris Parrott. FEMA has set its deadline and if it’s not met, the town must return the money, said Parrott. The mayor said the borough has set up a meeting on Oct. 13 with officials from Sussex-Wantage Little League and the High Point Hawks Midget Football Club to block out a work schedule and line up volunteers to help with the work. A contract for the restoration work to the park’s largest baseball field and the football field used there has been awarded to Wantage Excavating for $25,000, said Parrott. The work will include the installation of sod and clay, field leveling and a new pitcher’s mound for the baseball field, he said. FEMA recently notified the borough by mail that it was being granted an extension to complete the field restoration by Dec. 30. At the Oct. 6 Sussex Borough Council meeting, Paul Pfeil, president of the High Point Hawks Midget Football Club, asked whether any of the FEMA funding could be applied toward a concession stand at Brookside Park. But Parrott said FEMA officials made it clear that the aid was exclusively for restoring the fields. Even if the borough and the two youth leagues do complete the field restoration by year-end, the town may still have other hurdles to scale. According to Sussex Borough Attorney John Ursin, FEMA holds the right to revoke some of the project funding at its discretion if it determines the field restoration hasn’t been completed in accordance with FEMA guidelines.