The road to installing artificial turf on the Montville Township High School field has been windy, and has not yet reached an end, although the project is now moving ahead with construction meetings to begin within the next several weeks.

The same cannot be said, however, for neighboring community Parsippany, whose voters rejected a referendum to turf two athletic fields and fund other athletic improvements in the township for $7.7 million on Wednesday. The referendum failed with 2,373 "no" votes to 1,745 "yes" votes, according to Parsippany Patch.

A similar referendum, with a much lower cost at $990,000, was rejected by Montville voters last year. While in Parsippany, taxpayers would have foot the cost for the improvements, the Montville Township Board of Education was planning to fund the field project through surplus money generated by switching health insurance carriers. Still, when the board sought approval to move ahead, voters rejected the referendum by a 186-vote margin in September 2011.

But last year, the Montville board came up with another way to get the project done: to sell the naming rights to the high school field and use that money as a donation for the completion of the turf field. Applied Landscape Technologies, a Montville-based landscaping company, was awarded the bid on the naming rights and will be funding the new field.

Montville Patch shared news of the beginning of construction on the project earlier this week, with mixed response from commenters. Gary Lewis said he was happy to see the project moving forward:

I have seen too many communities make the regrettable mistake of not lining their turf field for all field sports.....I truly hope the school district has the foresight to line it correctly. It is not simply a football surface, and all field sports should play on the best, safest possible surface!

User Comfortably Numb, who said they voted against the artificial turf referendum in 2011, felt otherwise:

Clearly its not the safest, there are statistics that clearly support that fact and being an athlete I understand and appreciate what occurs in a football game on turf versus grass. The game is played at a higher speed and there is a tendency to have more severe injuries

Now we want to hear what the rest of you think. Participate in our poll below and share your thoughts in the comments.