Oceanport to rename park in honor of Gatta Soccer fields would become Maria Gatta Community Park BY CHRISTINE VARNO Staff Writer OCEANPORT — The Borough Council has decided to pay tribute to the late Mayor Maria Gatta by naming a borough park in her memory. At the borough workshop meeting on Jan. 5, Mayor Lucille Chaump asked for council approval in renaming Port-au-Peck fields on the corner of Port-au-Peck and Oceanport avenues as Maria Gatta Community Park. Gatta succumbed to cancer on Oct. 27 after serving as mayor of the borough for just over two years. “No one wanted the word memorial [in the new name], so we decided on Maria Gatta Community Park,” Chaump, who succeeded Gatta, said at the meeting. The park, which was purchased by the borough in 2004 for $2 million from the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, owner of Monmouth Park racetrack, comprises soccer fields. But Borough Clerk Kim Jungfer said the amenities at the park site could change in the future. “At the moment it is just soccer fields,” Jungfer said Monday. “It could change. There are no plans now because financially we do not have the money to make any [renovations].” The new name of the park was suggested by the borough Recreation and Senior Citizen committees and Jungfer said the mayor and council will make the final decision. A resolution to name the fields Maria Gatta Community Park is scheduled to be on an upcoming municipal agenda for a final vote and approval, according to Jungfer.