The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Concerns raised on playing field plan
MIDDLETOWN — While the Common Council has put off action on proposed revisions of the city’s athletic field policy, the chairwoman of the Westfield Residents Association has been busy compiling an in-depth critique of the policy.
The council deferred action on the proposed field policy as it rushed to complete action on other issues during a five-hour meeting March 4.
The proposed revision was tabled until the council’s April 1 meeting at the suggestion of Councilman Robert Blanchard.
The March 4 meeting was largely given over to comments at an extended public hearing on selling the former Green Street Arts Center to St. Vincent DePaul Middletown. The council ultimately voted to lease the building to the agency.
There were some comments on the proposed field policy — most of them critical — during the public comment segment of the meeting.
Now, Jennifer Mahr, chairwoman of the WRA, has produced a detailed seven-page critique of the proposed revision which
she addressed to Director of Public Works Williams Russo and copied to the council members.
“Every now and then, citizens have to speak up, and this is one of those times,” Mahr wrote in a letter addressed to WRAP
members and friends, adding that her goal is to “have the town legislate effectively on your behalf to properly steward your tax dollars.”
“This ordinance, as written, does no operate for the benefit of Middletown residents first and it effectively diverts your tax dollars to private pockets,” Mahr wrote.
The proposed revisions create three categories of users of the city’s fields and exempts some organizations and/or schools from having to pay fees for use of the fields.
The First Priority users are: the Middletown Recreational and Community Services Department; Middletown Little League; Middletown Youth Soccer; Middleton Youth Football and Cheerleading; Middletown Ahern-Whalen; Middletown Post 75 American Legion; Middletown Public Schools; Mercy High School; Xavier High School; Vinal Technical High School; Adult Softball (men and women); and Middletown Youth Lacrosse.
Mercy and Xavier, the girls and boys Roman Catholic high schools, draw many of their students from out of town and some critics have objected to the inclusion of those two schools in the first priority category.
Mahr’s questions cover more than just that issue, however. In her critique, she notes that the superintendent of parks has responsibility for scheduling athletic games and facilities.
Why then does the director of public works “have competing ability and sole discretion to grant or deny
use of the parks, facilities, or fields...or to negotiate and to set tournament use fees?” she asked.
“Where is the transparency in how these decisions are made?” Mahr asked in the letter. “Where do the fees for field use go?”
If the director of public works negotiates tournaments and decides no fee is necessary “the net result is that private organizations get to use public facilities for free to make money for their organizations,” she charges.
The proposed revisions set a requirement that secondand third-tier users must have a minimum of 60 percent Middletown residents.
“If there is a 60% residency requirement applied to second and third priority users, why not to first priority users?” Mahr asked.
The policy “effectively shuts out any use of Palmer Field by female teams,” she said in her letter.
“More to the point, how can the city justify using bond money to pay for athletic fields that teams with a non-resident majorities have first right to use?”
Mahr also turned her attention to the Country Club Field, which she said is leased to Middletown Youth Soccer for 25 years. MYS is calling for installing a turf field on the property, Mahr writes.
But if the leagues lease the land from the town how can it – and not the city – make a decision on what kind of field will be used?
Mahr concludes her letter with a list of seven proposals that she said will improve the revisions.
Her proposals include “establishing just two categories: first priority users are teams/organizations with greater than 67% Middletown residents, second priority teams have less than 67% users.”
In addition, she calls for collected field fees go to the Department of Public Works budget “for field/facility care;” a mechanism “to make the field/facility schedule visible to the public so everyone can see open/available fields in the schedule;” an “external appeal process to review denied field/facilities rentals.
“Taken as a whole, the WRA’s concerns…are related to transparency in decision making, equal opportunity for field access between all eligible organizations and fiscal responsibility,” she wrote. “There is no process that establishes a yearly review to see if teams granted first priority status used the fields in a manner that deserves that status. Nor is there a process that would allow new organizations to gain first priority.”
By contrast, “Portland rotates field use between all eligible users so that everyone gets some time,” Mahr said.
In mid-afternoon telephone call on Monday, Mahr said she is not impressed with the reasoning put forward for the revisions. Consequently, she is calling on the council to postpone taking any action on the revisions until and unless there is an in-depth review of the proposal and the process by which it was developed.
Why, she asked, did the city attorney and the director of public works put together the proposal instead of having it developed by the public works committee as has been done in the past?
“I just want someone to say WAIT,” she said.
Favors are being done for certain groups, she suggested, explaining that it appears “the best field in Middletown” are being restricted for use by travel and premiere teams.
“There are so many complex things going on here…the council can’t just rubber-stamp this.”