Common Ground is a campaign blog series on preserving what makes Bernards Township worth protecting.

Drive along Valley Road and you’ll find Pleasant Valley Park doing what it’s always done — hosting soccer games, baseball practices, lacrosse clinics, Plays in the Park, and summer evenings at the pool. But look toward the center of fields #3 and #4, and you’ll now see something new: the construction of a cricket pitch, built specifically for a sport that, until now, had no dedicated home in our township.

This didn’t happen by accident. Back in 2021, the Township’s Parks & Recreation Needs Assessment Survey identified a cricket field as a genuine community need — a signal from residents that our recreation spaces needed to reflect the interests of all the residents. This spring, the Township Committee approved the project, and construction moved forward on a 10-foot-by-66-foot pitch, set to open shortly.

It’s a small physical footprint with an outsized meaning. For years, cricket players in Bernards Township had to travel elsewhere to find a proper pitch — a quiet signal that our public spaces hadn’t quite caught up with our public. Now, that’s changing.

A cricket pitch alongside our baseball diamonds and soccer fields isn’t just an amenity upgrade. It’s a statement that recreation planning in this township listens to all its residents. When a teenager who grew up playing cricket with family can now play a short drive from home — on a field the township built because people asked for it — that’s local government working exactly as it should.

Places like Pleasant Valley Park don’t become more welcoming by accident, either. They become more welcoming because someone pays attention, asks what’s missing, and makes space for all to enjoy our common ground. That’s the kind of listening I want to keep bringing to Bernards Township.

— Joan Bannan