NEW MILFORD -- Borough officials are preparing to make permanent repairs to La Barbera Field, now that the temporary fixes that allowed the field to open after April's nor'easter are becoming inadequate.

After the floods, volunteers and employees from the Borough Department of Public Works rebuilt the fences, filled in some of the earth that the river washed away and cleared debris and silt from the field, said Recreation Director John Bigger.

Now, the ground is uneven, the grass is patchy, and the fences are leaning at 45-degree angles to the ground in places.

Repairing damaged athletic fields that sit in flood plains can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for flood-prone areas like New Milford and Lodi. The fields are still vulnerable to flooding after repairs, but officials say their fully developed towns don't have anywhere else to house a full roster of recreational teams.

"It's our obligation to make this a playable, viable field," Bigger said. "There are no other options. I don't want to deprive the kids of something just because we think it may flood sometime."

La Barbera Field houses the borough's Babe Ruth baseball and junior football recreational programs. An informal quote estimated that repairs would cost more than $100,000. The borough had already set aside $160,000 for repairs before the flood, and hopes to go out for bids soon, said Borough Clerk Christine Demiris.

Bigger said he hopes the borough will be able to raise the field about a foot and connect it to an off-site drainage system. He would also like to re-sod the field and replace the fences. He knows that even all of that may not be enough.

"If you have a flood like we had last April, you could raise the field 20 feet -- it wouldn't matter," he said.

Hubert Klein, chairman of the recreation commission, said parents from some of the football teams had submitted petitions asking the borough to fix the field after the floods.