| You say what?.A turf field at the upper fields at the high school so all town residents and town children can use it! At an initial cost of $855,000! How is this for the reality check.reloam, reseed and irrigate or better yet, sod and irrigate the upper fields and don't let them be used this summer. Don't let summer camps sponsored by the Parks and Recreation Department use those upper fields until they are ready to be used. And then maintain those fields. What is wrong with the intown youth sports using the other fields located throughout the town? And why should the travel teams be using the high school fields for practice and games? I would certainly hope that the Turner Park fields can be used for other sports besides baseball! But hope springs eternal I bet they can't. We have the Wolf Swamp Fields (perhaps lights should be installed there and perhaps even solar powered at that) so that those fields could be utilized more. How about the fields at Glenbrook Middle School there's plenty of land there! There is Williams Middle School, too. It's funny that the field is big and they only play in one area. A prudent plan would be to rotate the game and practice locations weekly. But that's just too simple to execute. There are the fields at Wolf Swamp School, Blueberry Hill and Greenwood Park as well, and don't forget DiPippo and Strople fields. How about that huge area of land that now sits vacant where the community gardens are make those playing fields and enter through Knox Road. Perhaps we could even use Bay Path's fields on Farmlea? Remember summer camps are just that and many of them are fun for profit as well, especially football and soccer! And just for your information they are open to any kid from any town. Perhaps the fee schedules of the summer sporting camps as well as all sporting programs sponsored through the Park and Rec Department should be at a higher fee schedule. Remember high school parents are paying $250 per kid per sport for sports fees which does not include the use of the high school fields. Perhaps the Park and Rec-sponsored programs should be raising their rates to equal the high schools! And finally, when there is a "soccer jamboree" or a "football jamboree" or a "lacrosse jamboree" no matter who sponsors it what is the fee collected that goes back into field maintenance hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kids on play on those days and you wonder why our fields are torn up! In essence, charge appropriately and allocate a percentage of that fee (for example, 20 percent) to field maintenance. Believe me, if you do that your fields will be beautiful! Diane B. Nadeau Longmeadow |
