Hurricane-Hit MHS Field Ready for Some Football

There may have been dead fish on and damage to Morristown High School's football field from Hurricane Irene, but by the time the Colonials play their next home game–against Randolph at 1 p.m. Oct. 1–all anyone will see there is gridiron action.

In fact, the field is expected to be ready for practice this week, said Schools Superintendent Thomas Ficarra.

"The 30-yard-line looked like a wave," he said with a hand gesture at Monday night's Board of Education meeting, noting the tremendous rains that fell on the field had caused the carpet to rise, as water flowed underneath.

is covered both by insurance and a 30-year warranty. Ficarra said the warranty was able to take care of repairs, which included repairs, straightening of the turf and sanitizing.

"There was a lot of dead fish on the football field, I'm not joking," Ficarra said. "We wanted to make sure only the manufacturer touched it [before allowing usage]."

With the repairs to the field completed, the only schools facility still in need of work in the wake of Hurricane Irene remains Alexander Hamilton School, which received severe flood damage from the storm.

"We went into the front door and immediately started slipping and sliding," said BOE President Lynn Horowitz. "There was mud everywhere."

Board members thanked the Madison School District for donating its Madison High School football field on Sept. 10 for Morristown's season opener, . Board members also praised the fast work in the district of cleaning up the damage just a week before school was scheduled to begin. , including several new roofs, science labs and bathrooms, which had to be completed prior to the opening of schools on Sept. 7.

"It was impressive the amount of work done in such a short time," board member Nancy Bangiola said.

Morris School District architects currently are examining ways to design a method of faster, less damaging water removal in the future, Ficarra said.