They have been more than five years in the planning, but the two multi-purpose sports fields planned for the Hilltop could get the green light at tonight’s Town Council meeting.
Or not.
The Council goes into the Monday meeting stuck philosophically in the same place as the fields are geologically: between a rock and a hard place. In an election season, it needs to balance Verona’s desire for more sports fields against its equally strong desire for tax relief.
In late March, the Councilwas given broad-brush details on the cost and financing of the fields. For $5.125 million, Verona would get a rectangular field for soccer, lacrosse and football, and a diamond for softball and youth baseball that would have enough space in the outfield for youth soccer and lacrosse. Both fields would be covered in synthetic turf, at a cost of $620,000 for the softball field and $848,000 for the rectangular field. There will be benches, bleachers, parking lots, planters and lighting, a $40,000 press box and $408,000 for a concession stand. The field project does not include a $1.5 million amphitheater proposed by Council member Bob Manley or, apparently, a reserve for turf replacement.
The project has the buy-in of every sports group in town, all of whom seem to be urging their members by email to attend tonight’s meeting.
Broad support might not be enough, though. The plan, which was conceived in an era of easy spending, is now up against the reality of a stubborn recession. Town Manager Joe Martin told the Council in March that the work will be financed initially with short-term notes, which would be converted to 20-year bonds once construction is completed. The $250,000 a year debt service would be paid from revenues collected from the new Cenrose apartment development, the Highlands at Hilltop.
But Martin failed to show the Council what revenues will be generated annually from the Highlands over the 20-year life of the bond debt, or how the apartment complex could support both the sports fields and general tax relief, which was the original intention of the PILOT agreement that governs the site. In a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT), almost all of the payment goes to the town: Essex County gets 5% and nothing goes to the Board of Education, which is facing the prospect of a $9.1 million referendum in part because of its own field troubles.
Martin has said that the Hilltop will produce $1.5 million in PILOT money annually, but it does not do so now. Council member Kevin Ryan noted at the last meeting that Verona got $326,443 from the Hilltop PILOT in 2012, all of which was used to support spending in last year’s budget.
There are other sticking points too. At the April 1 Council meeting on the budget, Council member–and fields supporter–Michael Nochimson expressed concern that $8 million of Verona’s debt is being carried as notes, instead of as long-term debt. As a note, the town pays only interest, and not principal, and the full cost of the borrowing is not reflected in the budget. While also generally supportive of the field, council member Jay Sniatkowski has expressed concern about Verona’s overall debt load. It is now 1.26% and would rise to 1.5% with the new fields. This is still below the 3.5% allowed by the state.
Tonight’s meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Council chambers in Town Hall.
