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More improvements coming to Belleville athletic facilities

A grant from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs will help the Belleville School District expand and enhance the athletic and recreational experiences for students.

The district has been awarded $86,000 in local recreation improvement grants from the department’s Division of Local Government Services.

The local amount represents Belleville’s share of $25 million in grants that are being handed out to 352 local governments after a competitive application process.

Although the district hasn’t finalized its plans for the grant, Belleville Schools Superintendent Richard Tomko said it will be put toward purchasing sports equipment and expanding athletic facilities.

“We are committed to providing a rich array of athletic and recreational opportunities,” Tomko said. “As educators, it’s important to realize that not all lessons are learned in a classroom or a lab. Noble traits like teamwork, sportsmanship and perseverance are often learned on courts, diamonds, gridirons and fields.”

Tomko has made creating better athletic and recreational facilities an ongoing focus.

Perhaps the crowning jewel of those efforts is the Belleville Indoor Training Facility on Cortlandt Street. The 25,000- square-foot space in a converted auto body shop is designed for high school athletes, as well as weekend warriors throughout the community. administration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The facility, which opened to great fanfare in October, includes a workout room with equipment ranging from a golf driving simulator to chest presses to rowing machines. There are also two wrestling rooms with new mats and an all-purpose room with hardwood floors.

The centerpiece of the Belleville Indoor Training Facility is a cavernous, carpeted space that can be set up for soccer training, batting cage sessions, track and field drills, lacrosse practice and more.

In April, the ribbon was cut on the new track at the Municipal Stadium Complex behind Belleville High School.

The new eight-lane competitive track has been in the works for decades and is part of a $5.5 million project to enhance and expand the athletic facilities in the township.

The blue track with its distinctive gold lane stripping will allow the Buccaneers track team to host meets after having to compete on the road for several years.

Nutley resident Edward Zazzali has been named to Worcester Polytechnic Institute's Spring 2023 Dean's List.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has announced that Steven Oliner, a member of the class of 2025 majoring in Computer Science, was named to the uni- versity's Dean's List for academic excellence for the spring 2023 semester. www.TrioJewelers.com

Alvernia University Occupational Therapy student Meghan Mackle of Belleville helped raised nearly $1,200 for the West Reading Disaster Recovery Fund, which was created following the explosion of the R.M. Palmer factory in West Reading, Pa. earlier this year.