Basketball Courts Upgrades at Pulaski Park

The Township of Bloomfield’s Recreation Department celebrated the completion of the basketball court project at Pulaski Park with a ribbon cutting ceremony this week. The $116,350 project consisted of demolition of the existing courts, grading, repaving, installation of 4 glass backboards/rims and color coating to match the existing tennis courts. Funding came from the 2012 and 2013 Recreation Department’s Capital Improvement Budget.

The Clark’s Pond South basketball court in 2005 was refurbished, and saw a tremendous increase in usage.  At any given time you could find residents working on their skills or playing a pickup game.  However, there were also times when dozens of potential players were waiting for their opportunity to play.

The recreation department viewed this recent project as an opportunity to create additional courts on the preexisting footprint at Pulaski Park. The Board of Recreation Commissioners voted to keep the current configuration of the existing full court but requested the addition of two half courts to maximize the amount of participants at any one time. Now, 10-30 participants can play a full court game as well as two half court games simultaneously.

“When I brought up the idea of new courts at our Board of Recreation Commissioners meeting back in 2012, there was an overwhelming amount of support,” said Recreation Director Michael Sceurman.   “When designing the courts, we wanted to make sure they were not only aesthetically pleasing and functional, but also maximized the number of participants able to play at one time.”

(Top photo: L-r: Recreation Commissioner Michael Cantalupo, Assistant Recreation Director Megan Schaffer, Recreation Commissioner Luis Felix, Councilman Nicholas Joanow, Mayor Michael J. Venezia, Recreation Director Michael Sceurman, Councilman Carlos Pomares and Recreation Commissioner John Marek.)