Longport residents want the basketball nets removed from borough streets.
By NANETTE LoBIONDO GALLOWAY
LONGPORT – Although parking doesn’t seem to be a problem in the borough in the off-season, at least two residents think leaving basketball and street hockey nets on borough streets pose public safety and street maintenance concerns.
Residents Robert Guest and Pat Callaghan, who’ve lived in Longport for 35 years, said they were taught by their parents not to play in the street. A proliferation of basketball and hockey nets that in summer take up a parking spaces make it difficult for fire apparatus to maneuver the streets, and hamper trash collection, and street sweeping and snow removal efforts in the off season.
An ordinance should be put into place that requires them to be removed, they said.
They suggested the borough require anyone who erects a recreation apparatus to register it with the borough, so code officials know who owns them, can remove them if necessary, and allow them to be reclaimed.
“What makes a lot of sense to me is that we have a system to identify who the owners are,” Mayor Nicholas Russo said.
Solicitor Michael Affanato said the borough has an ordinance regulating large recreational vehicles in the right of way, such as RVs, trailers and campers, but not basketball and street hockey nets.
He said he could draft an ordinance requiring registration, period of time they can be allowed on the street, and fines imposed for failure to remove them, he said.
“There is no legal right to have a basketball court in the right of way,” Affanato said.
Commissioner Jim Leeds said a survey should be taken to determine how many are on the street and if they pose a problem for public safety.
Commissioner Dan Lawler said he had one in front of his house when his children were younger and he hated having to move it because it was heavy, even though it had wheels.
“They are definitely in the way…but they are movable,” he said.
Guest suggested children should play basketball at the borough’s recreation complex instead of in the streets, which is not safe. Those who want their children to play in front of their houses, should erect the equipment in their own driveways, and not in the street, he said.
Affanato suggested the Code Enforcement Department conduct an inventory of where the nets are located. He said he would review the borough’s regulations and draft an ordinance for review at the next Borough Commission workshop meeting.
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