RIVER VALE, N.J.—The Township Council approved installation of new artificial turf fields for slightly over $900,000 at both the Mark Lane and Alexander Fields recreation areas on June 22. The vote was 3-0, with councilors Paul Criscuolo and John Donovan absent.
The turf fields were purchased under the state’s Cooperative Purchasing Program. The turf fields will utilize Field Turf Classic HD, with Genius Sensors, for a total price of $914,752.
The base bid for turf purchase and installation was $860,078, with Alternate No. 1 for $45,000, and a performance bond for $9,674. Resolution 2026-152 says that sufficient funds are available in the General Capital Account.
Baylor Massacre remembered
As part of Bergen County’s celebration of America’s semiquincentennial, historian Ed Moderacki will detail the events leading up to and after the Revolutionary War’s Baylor Massacre, which occurred Sept. 28, 1778, in River Vale, and the later discovery of some Continental soldiers’ remains on site in 1967.
Moderacki presents Sept. 28 at 7 p.m. at the Ridgewood Public Library. The presentation is free and part of Bergen250, the county’s yearlong series of events commemorating America’s 250th anniversary of independence. Moderacki called the massacre “the bloodiest engagement of the Revolutionary War in Bergen County.”
Historians note the raid for which this attack was a diversion also included an attack on American forces that has been described by Patriot sources as a massacre.
On Oct. 15, Loyalist troops executed a surprise attack on forces under the command of Casimir Pulaski in which 25 to 30 men were killed in what is known as the affair at Little Egg Harbor. In 1967, the remains of six of the dead — recognized from artifacts such as buttons and clothing remnants — were found in three abandoned vats from Blauvelt’s Tannery.
In 1972, facing suburban development, the site was dedicated as a county park and the remains were re-interred there.
Learn much more at the Pascack Historical Society.