Recreation Commission Meeting April 4, 2012

The discussion period last night began with Ms. Moore of New Hartford Plus showing us a census report that she says shows that this whole problem is probably arising because of an aging population. She also commented that there are plans to close Bakerville School because there aren’t enough children. Please restrain me from suggesting that she thinks we should put the rest of them in a box until they decide to leave. (Oops, too late.)

Mr. Radwick stood to tell us we didn’t need youth sports to keep kids out of trouble. They can just look at birds and butterflies. That, my friends, is what our youth sports organization is up against.

Could I get each league President in town to send me just the number of children in their program so that these people can finally get a sense of what we’re discussing? I don’t think they have any idea.

When they stand and say that there’s plenty of space for football elsewhere, everybody involved knows that just isn’t the case, yet it gets repeated over and over. Perhaps they should visit these places during the season.

Football is blamed by FoBPS for leaving trash all over, yet as we heard last night, it is cleaner there when football is using it.

Football only practices 5 nights a week during August, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm (that’s 2 hours folks, not 3 to 4) when there are no lights used. Yet the inaccurate story is still repeated by FoBPS over and they practice 5 nights with lights for 2 ½ months.

Football practices three nights a week from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm (still 2 hours, not 3 or 4), when school starts in late August, until the season ends, some teams in October, some go to mid-November if they make playoffs. Yet the inaccurate stories are disseminated in letters that are spread throughout town by FoBPS, and as we saw last night, are believed by some.

Using a space of about 2 acres in a park of over 150 acres 2 hours a night through August, and 6 hours a week in September, October and half of November is hardly exclusive use, yet the story is repeated over and over, as though no person is allowed in the park from August through November due to football.

I remember a point in time last year when my grandson was forced to play in the dark because of the fear of bothering the neighbors, until it just was not possible any more. It was dangerous for them. With sinister video-taping adults lurking in the woods, I suspect lack of lights would be a liability.

Will they stop? Absolutely not. All concessions have been met with a deafness that is frightening. There is no respect for the program or the people involved in it. I saw it in their responses, and I don’t see us being able to go on with our normal busy lives until this is put behind us.

The Recreation Commission could put this to bed with a written exception for football, that allows the use of lights at the coach’s discretion (which means when it gets dark ), from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. three nights a week at Brodie Park South, until another place is ready for them to practice. Maybe that will still happen. We can only hope it happens sooner than later.

Update:  I now think that there should be separate rules for separate parks.  What fits at Callahan doesn’t fit at Brodie North.  What fits at Brodie North doesn’t fit at Brodie South.  What fits at Brodie North & South doesn’t fit at Chapin.

When football leaves for its field at Antolini, some poor team will be stuck fighting, like Krista says.  The fights should end.  Somebody has to have the courage to bring a solution.  I believe the Rec Commission knows what that solution has to be – because if brought to referrendum, the Democracy so often spoken of at Rec Meetings might bring quite a change to Brodie South.