Dear Tribune & Georgian,
We expected to see Tinkerbell fly by at any minute while reading your Editor's Opinion last Thursday about the $4,333,648.00 our Commissioners just blessed on the so-called "MULTI-USE soccer fields.
Please understand that we know you have a tough job getting a weekly paper out, but we simply cannot understand how your Editorial comments got so factually wrong. In fact, our first impression is that you have not paid attention to the specifics of the Soccer debate at all or that maybe Commissioner Martin Turner, bless his soul, was your sole source.
You wrote:
It has never been an either/or debate except by the pro-Soccer crowd. Commissioner Jim Goodman, and most of us who agree with him, believe both are important improvements to our community and each is compatible with the other. Destroying the mini-golf to make way for storage and a small number of parking spaces is not helping soccer. The decision appears to be purely politicians emotionally picking winners and losers. Did you bother to drive over to the mini-golf to see if the soccer plan requires the mini-golf’s destruction? Did you even attempt to find out how many days a year the soccer club actually has organized activity on the “soccer” fields, or that they fill the existing parking lot? Does the county’s $4,333,648.00 plan prohibit “parents and children parking on the side of the road, which," as you reported, "is rife with potential danger.” Will you advocate that police should ticket and tow illegally parked soccer cars to save children’s lives? Better yet, does the county’s design prevent illegal parking with guardrails to prevent risking the lives of the "children"? How about an Editorial suggesting car-pooling to the soccer practices?
And we’ve tried to find out why the County uses the term “multi-use” for the soccer field when they are obviously constructed for SOCCER ONLY. You didn’t even question that misrepresentation by the County!!! Since fees must be paid to a private organization to "join" soccer, does that mean the fields are off-limits for other soccer players? When will non-league recreation soccer players be allowed on this County-owned property that’s financed by ALL TAXPAYERS?
From the County:
In fact, a few of our so-called elected leaders have now denied the vast majority of Camden citizens an opportunity to have a community-sponsored mini-golf activity. Just as they allowed the Saint Marys Summer Swimming Pool fall to ruin they neglected the county-owned mini-golf until citizens raised the specter of it's rehabilitation. There are far more of us who have NO INTEREST in watching other peoples’ 4-to-14 year-olds play soccer. We think that mini-golf would have been an extremely successful family recreation activity, and it would have cost taxpayers NOTHING! NOTHING! NOTHING! That bears repeating since it is the truth! NOTHING!
So it was NEVER an EITHER/OR decision. Only Commissioner Jim Goodman stood fast trying to protect the mini-golf asset from irrational destruction. But we know that a holier-than thou majority of our Commissioners know what's best for all of us. Just wait until they've slammed a multi-million dollar airport down our throats that even their high-paid consultant says will provide only TWO JOBS 15 years from now.
Surely, even without our help, the staff of the Tribune and Georgian knew that the Soccer Fields deteriorated during the entire time taxpayers invested tens of millions in the caretaker PSA. We've written many posts about the dangers allowed at County Parks from broken playing surfaces, unusable boat ramps, unsafe play areas, and county parks with no swings.
What? Our households haven’t already spent enough on soccer fields? A cursory glance at the PSA’s 2021 Master Plan shows many other higher priorities could be completed for $4,333,648.00. We have no idea what will be the soccer fields maintenance cost for the next 15 years but our existing parks have had tennis and basketball courts unusable for years.
We think it is wonderful that you made some suggestions about what Camden kids can do for free. However, our libraries are poor substitutes for whole family outdoor recreation. And how often should a family visit the Cumberland Island Museum --- Weekly? Monthly? Annually? --- to see the new discoveries from Cumberland?
And what is this claim from the Publisher of Camden County’s legal organ newspaper that kids have “Also free: the beach.”
What beach? Name it. I hope you know that it is not possible to go to Cumberland Island without paying ferry tickets totaling $85.00 for a family of four including two school-age kids. Even if you own your own boat, there’s additional entrance fees for two parents and their kids alike for another $30. That's over a hundred bucks for a family of four! And it's another $35 for grandma plus she has to be able to walk 4 or 5 miles to enjoy the beach and major ruins. This kind of crap is what we expect from politicians, not from a supposed purveyor of the truth.
It seems like our elected officials, the Tribune and Georgian newspaper needs to start listening to Camden's citizen taxpayers.
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