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Bishops Feeling Blue Over Green

The Asbury Park Board of Education does not have enough green to get a blue football field, according to a report in the Asbury Park Sun.

700 members of the community presented the deadlocked Board of Education with a petition asking that the new field of the Blue Bishops be covered with blue astro turf.  Opposition wasn’t about the color, it was about money.  Blue turf will cost $45,000 more than green turf, according to business administrator Geoffrey Hastings.

The board has $825,000 of their $66 million Abbott funded budget allocated for the new football field….$700,000 for the turf and and $107,000 to cover change orders or unforeseen expenses.  Nobody said the BoE or the Asbury Park Sun…whoever came up with those numbers…is good at math.

The board was deadlocked 4-4 over the color of the field until one of the supporters of blue left the meeting.  Then the mean greenies passed the budget without the $45,000 for the blue turf.

State monitor Lester Richens said the board couldn’t afford the extra money that is coming from Trenton by way of New Jersey income taxes.

MMM is happy to offer the following suggestions to the Asbury Park Board of Eduction:

1) Go through the budget looking for additional math errors.  Maybe you already have the money.

2) Regardless of the math, put the turf out to bid again.  $45,000 is not much in a $700,000 order.  Competition is a wonderful thing.  That’s why we have bids.

3) Hire this blogger to find waste in your budget. I’ll find the $45,000 and a lot more.  Pay me 20% of every dollar over $45,000 I find in unnecessary and wasteful spending. 30% if anyone is indicted as a result of my findings. Pay me nothing if I don’t find anything.  Give me 30 days and complete access.

Posted: March 31st, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Asbury Park, Asbury Park Sun | Tags: , , , , , | 4 Comments »

A New Football Field For Asbury Park High School Because of Goose Poo

By Art Gallagher

The Asbury Park Board of Education is planning on spending over $1 million on a new astro-turf football field because they have a problem with Canada geese at the existing field.   Wednesday night the board awarded a $145,000 contract to an engineering firm to get the bidding documents ready and to supervise the project, according to a report in The Asbury Park Press.

goose-pears2That money would be much better spent using the geese as an educational resource.  The Asbury Park Board of Education should to invest in a life skills curriculum.  They should teach hunting and cleaning the geese.  A culinary program with internships for students at area restaurants would be ideal.  Business classes that teach production, packaging, distribution, marketing and sales of fresh and cooked goose would be a real benefit to Asbury Park students.

Such educational programs could produce revenue and lead to additonal educational opportunities for students, like accounting and administration.

There might be health and hygene risks, but they could become educational opportunities too.  The risks would be cooking-goose-neck-sausageless than the long term orthopedic damage young football players will suffer from playing football on concrete covered with plastic.

Posted: October 14th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Abbott Ruling, Education | Tags: , , | 6 Comments »