Judge denies attempt to halt turf project BY DAN NEWMAN Staff Writer MIDDLETOWN - A state Superior Court judge denied a request by the firm IC Improvements to stop construction on the turf field project at High School North. IC Improvements, based in Parsippany, was one of the losers in earlier rounds of competitive bidding for the right to install the new artificial surface. The eventual winner, Pennsylvania-based Mondo, U.S.A., won with a low bid of $753,000 on Aug. 9. Less than a week later, IC Improvements filed a lawsuit against the township's Board of Education, contending that the bidding process was flawed. James Cody, a Middletown resident and sales consultant for IC Improvements who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit, feels that even though he was on the losing end of the decision last week, construction on the project should not begin until 2008. "Why start doing work on it now when the football season is about to start?" Cody said. "The quality of that field would be questionable if they started now and then tried to rush everything for this year. In the end, it's the taxpayers and the kids that will lose." Cody also questioned why the board would invest even more money in the field when over a $1 million was spent there just five years ago. At the time, the district refurbished the natural grass field, installed a new running track and built a new press box at the site. "And now this board wants to spend another $753,000 over there," Cody said. "And it still won't be the same quality as the field over at High School South." Cody was referring to the artificial grass field and athletic facilities that was constructed by IC Improvements at a cost $967,000 three years ago. At the time, Cody served as the vice president of the Middletown South Touchdown Club, a booster group for the football team. James Landgraf, the board's special counsel, and Sean Regan, IC Improvements' attorney, could not be reached for comment.