New playground opens for Cheesequake kids
BY LAUREN MATTHEW
Staff Writer

OLD BRIDGE — After more than 80 years of doing without, Cheesequake Elementary School finally has a place for students to play.

The school dates back to the 1920s, according to Principal Joanne Feldman. And since that time, students have never had a playground or field of their own.

“We pretty much have only had asphalt,” Feldman said.

No lawn area was available for the students; every outside activity happened on blacktop.

“The kids were always getting hurt,” said PTA Vice President Susan Pruneau. For years, she said, “we fought to acquire property to have a field built for the kids.”

That fight is finally over.

Ten years ago, Feldman said, the school began to request land from the Cheesequake Fire Department next door. The school was asking for an acre that the children might use for field and playground purposes, she said.

After two years of “very hard work, and negotiations back and forth,” Feldman said, Cheesequake reached an agreement with the fire department. The land is now being leased to the school at the rate of a dollar per year.

“You can’t pick a better neighbor,” the principal said of the fire department.

Arbe Landscaping donated its services to clear trees, grade the field to be flat and fence it in, she said. The field, called Eagle Field, is dedicated to the children of Cheesequake Elementary School.

“Now we have a fully usable field,” Feldman said. “We’re going to have our very first field day on a field.”

She said school officials found out they had obtained the field more than a year ago, and the field was cleared and finished last summer.

Feldman credits PTA members with much of the success.

“The PTA has been instrumental,” she said.

Members held numerous meetings over the past few years with the fire department and Old Bridge school district administrators to plan for the field, Feldman said.

This, she said, shows their support of the students and physical education.

A field dedication, which will include a dance performance, music and food, is planned for today from 6 to 8 p.m. The rain date is May 25.