Old Bridge Township’s Department of Parks, Recreation, and Social Services proudly maintains an array of parks, open spaces, and recreational facilities — encompassing over 300 acres of developed land.
“Within the last three years we’ve put in a lot of capital improvements [into our parks],” said Matthew Mercurio, Parks and Recreation director. “We’ve redone both of our athletic turf fields at Geick Park. Currently we are redoing our large field at Geick Park that’s underway right now.”
Geick Park, one of the township’s main parks, features a state-of-the-art synthetic surface baseball field, soccer field, and dedicated areas for softball and lacrosse.
The township also recently made a large investment in Mannino Park with the construction of nine pickleball courts and site improvements.
With that, the Township Council approved an amendment of an ordinance of recreation fees on second reading at a meeting in September to essentially “recoup our rate on private, profit-making groups that come in and rent our facilities,” Mercurio said.
For township-sanctioned leagues and organizations, fees per game during the day will increase from $10 to $50. Fees per game for a lighted field will increase from $25 to $50. The tournament fee (three games or more in one day) is $150.
For private/commercial teams and leagues, fees per game during the day will increase from $10 to $50. Fees per game for a lighted field will increase from $50 to $75. The tournament fee (three games or more in one day) is $150.
Mercurio said field usage will remain free for the township’s schools and youth sports including Little League, football leagues and clubs, and lacrosse clubs.
“We have a lot of private and commercial teams that come in and rent some of our fields on the weekends,” Mercurio explained. “Some come from out of state. We have a lot of private baseball teams that come in and probably utilize all five of our fields at Mannino Park.
“… could be on a Saturday or Sunday and they could have upwards to eight to 10 games … sometimes 15 games in one day on those fields.”
The amount of wear and tear on the township’s new facilities is what the township is looking to recoup with the increase of fees, Mercurio said.
The township is also minimally increasing ice rink fees, which have not increased since 2022. For an adult resident, fees will increase from $8 to $9 and for an adult nonresident, fees will increase from $11 to $12. For a child resident (12 or under), fees will increase from $6 to $7. For a child nonresident, fees will increase $7 to $8.
For an eight-week figure skating instructional lesson session, the resident fee will increase from $75 to $125. For nonresidents, the fee will increase from $125 to $200.
“On the analysis that we did looking at what the East Brunswick rates are, what the Howell rates are, we’re still lower than all the surrounding towns,” Mercurio said, noting sessions in those towns run for six weeks rather than eight weeks.
For Recreation building fees, the supervisor charge will increase from $8 to $17 per hour to reflect minimum wage changes.
“We’re just trying to cover our cost of our employees that are there supervising the buildings,” Mercurio said, noting the rate has not changed since the 1990s.
Recreation fees for picnic usage will increase from $50 to $100 for residents and $100 to $200 for nonresidents. Compared to surrounding towns such as East Brunswick, the township’s picnic usage rate is marketable, Mercurio said.
“In East Brunswick, if you want to rent one of their picnic pavilions, it can be about $300 to $400 if you’re a resident in town,” he said.
