Page 4 • Wednesday , July 21 , 2021 • The Hammonton Gazette
Work moving forward at 11th Street Recreation Fields
11th St , from Page 1 as far as where it ’ s at , if it ’ s been shipped . Like everything else , everything is on some kind of perpetual backorder . I do have a plan together for that . When I get the posts delivered with the backboards , then I have to get all of the rest of the material together and prep everything , drill all the holes , get the slabs set , get the concrete set . The biggest thing is building the device to hold them up in the air ,” Rivera said .
Rivera said that , once the new equipment is installed , the courts will be resurfaced .
“ I want to get everything up first before they come in , since that ’ ll be the last thing . They ’ ll come in , they ’ ll fill all the cracks , sealcoat it and do all of the line painting . That ’ ll be the last stage ,” Rivera said .
Rivera said that deconstruction of the hockey rink is also proceeding apace .
“ All of the old stuff has been taken down . We took the stuff of all the sides over there . There ’ s some more cleanup that ’ s got to be done , but I wanted to get everything ripped off . I figured , let ’ s get it all cleaned up ; that way , nobody can get hurt on a broken piece of wood . As we got into it , a lot of the wood was really rotten . I thought we were going to be able to unbolt some things , but some of the plywood there had like 800 coats of paint on it , so we said , let ’ s just rip it out . It was literally falling apart , so I said to tear it down , then we could get it all cleaned up and start fresh ,” Rivera said .
Rivera said that this was the first work done to the hockey rink in several decades .
“ I went back through some old records that I had ; about 20 years ago , we had done some pieces and patched here and there ,” Rivera said .
There is still some work needed for the demolition , Rivera said , but the steel framework is still sound .
“ We made pretty good time tearing it apart ; I still have to go down there and remove all the bolts , and stuff like that , but they ’ re galvanized rails , so they ’ ll be there after I ’ m long gone ,” Rivera said .
DiDonato said that there has been some discussion as to whether to replace the old rink with a new one , or with facilities for another sport .
“ The next phase is to probably try to start working on what we ’ re going to do , how we ’ re going to do it , what ’ s the right thing to do ? Is it roller hockey — put the roller hockey back ? Is it roller hockey ? Should there be some additional pickleball courts there ? What ’ s the right thing to do ? We don ’ t want to swing and miss . We want to find something that ’ s going to be the most used . We are doing some pickleball at the school , so we ’ re saying that maybe four ’ s enough . There ’ s others that say , ‘ No , you ’ re wrong ; it ’ s so hot right now , you could use another half-dozen courts .’ That ’ s what we ’ re debating back and forth ,” DiDonato said .
However , DiDonato said that be believes “ the best use might be the roller hockey for the kids .”
“ I know in Waterford , they have it , and the kids are going crazy for it . I ’ ve seen my own niece , her son plays all the time in the winter ... We have to decide pretty quickly here , but I believe that ’ s the route we ’ re going , because everything that I ’ m reading says that there is a renaissance of roller hockey all of a sudden ,” DiDonato said .
Rivera said that the project is set to be discussed at the next meeting of the Public Works Department , and that much of the timeline surrounding the project is dependent on the supply chain .
“ We ’ re in constant communication about it , so they know what ’ s going on with everything ... We ’ re waiting on some quotes to come back for the material . Materialwise , some stuff is out a little longer than others , by some of the quotes that I got . It ’ s going to be MDO : medium density overlay . It ’ s designed for exterior use primarily . It ’ s like plywood , but is manufactured with the resin and wax for exterior use ,” Rivera said .
DiDonato said that the town also hopes to be able to address entrance to the park .
“ If you look at a survey , we have about — where the guardrail stops on 11th Street on the roller hockey side — we only have eight feet of property to get into that parking lot . Then , we have plenty of property , but we only have eight feet in . To have two-way egress , we figure we need 25 or 30 feet . We ’ ve got to look at it and see if we can peel back that guardrail 20 feet , and what the topo would look like . Are we going to create an unsafe situation ? That ’ s not our goal ,” DiDonato said .
Rivera concurred with that assessment , and noted that a section of guardrail has already been altered to foster a better traffic pattern .
“ We opened up the one little section of rail so that people can kind of drive around the baseball fields a little better ,” Rivera said .
DiDonato said that work is also planned for the baseball fields .
“ We ’ re going to eventually fix those infields again one more time , and grade them ,” DiDonato said .
Once the work at the park is complete , both Rivera and DiDonato said that new signage will go up , which Rivera said would not take a great degree of time .
“ The sign company that we use
is pretty quick . Some of the material that they ’ re using now , because metal and wood are becoming scarce , they use a heavy resin that they use and I can get signs made up pretty quickly ,” Rivera said .
DiDonato said that the park will retain its current name , and that he is in favor of seeing the restoration of the sign at the hockey rink in memory of Chris Adirzone .
“ It was named after Chris Adirzone , because he passed in a car accident , and I think that should stay . He was a big hockey advocate ; the whole family is . I would like to see that stay , personally , but just a new , modern sign ; something nice . Once something ’ s named , I ’ m not a fan of taking names off things ,” DiDonato said .
Rivera said that he is using the workers in his department in the off weeks , when they are not handling bulky waste and brush pickup . Di- Donato noted that , because of the demands of the season , work at the park will not be completed quickly .
“ Right now , we ’ re in our summer season , and that ’ s when Scott ’ s pulling his hair out the most , especially with festivals and Mt . Carmel and different things . He ’ s using it as filler right now , so I would say the majority of the work on that project would be a fall / winter job . With that in mind , lumber prices are also finally starting to subside a little bit . To get the most out of taxpayers ’ dollars , if we wait a couple months , I think we ’ ll get maybe twice the lumber we ’ ll get today . Our dollar will go a lot further ,” DiDonato said .
Though the completion of the renovation will not take place quickly , DiDonato said that council will need to act expeditiously .
“ We have to make a decision sometime in the month of July ; the council ’ s got to make a decision that , yes , it ’ s going to be hockey , yes , we ’ re going to peel back 20 feet of that thing . This way , Scott can put his ducks in a row and go hell ’ s bells ,” DiDonato said .
Feast Week family time
THG / Joseph F . Berenato .
Joe Panarello ( left ) took his son Joe ( center ) and niece Kaili ( right ) to the procession on July 16 .