Letter to the editor from Donald Weyer:
$500,000.00, half a million, for Austin Park in Batavia ("The Batavian" report of Jan. 15)? With the city slipping in, handing off another $225,000.00 of Public Works funds, that would make it nearly three-quarters-of-a-million (actually, 72.5%).
Man, that big wad of cash would look mighty nice spread across a number of other needful parks in the city! Also, some questions for the "city fathers" and mothers too. Like:
- MacArthur Park, can we get numerous improvements to the youth baseball fields? Doing something with the unused tennis courts (installing basketball courts, or heh heh, a "pickleball court" moved from the proposed one at Austin), since the city schools overtook the basketball court at the old swimming pool/Youth Center to store its equipment? A permanent fix to the parking lots' surfaces, as they clearly suffer under high usage?
- The open, empty field to the immediate east of Dwyer Stadium. The site of the former junkyard, the "Superfund" area, which N.Y. State recently purified, cleansed, and beautified at a "pretty penny" cost to state taxpayers! Good, prime land, just waiting for some recreational infrastructure! Or even an entertainment venue, see #3, below.
- An "entertainment hotspot" proposed for Austin Park? I thought we had a thriving one at Jackson Square. And a second one at Batavia Downs Casino. And a proposed third one, see #2 above.
- I question what the population density of children is within, say, a 1.5-mile radius (walking distance) of Austin Park compared to that around other city parks. Certainly, you want to put the money where it will serve the greatest number of clients/customers, no?
- What's this "master plan" for Austin Park? I assume then that all the other city parks have "master plan(s)," too? And if so, what are they? And if not, why not? I trust that city government officials are all well-intentioned (I do give credit to Assistant City Manager Fix describing these park proposals as "expensive," a word you don't hear often when it comes to the officials addressing spending taxpayers' money, he must have had some experience in the banking industry), but let's get all the "plans" on the tabletop, and the money amounts in clear figures of dollars and cents for each, just to see if we non-government people with "skin in the game" agree with the "plans" and monies!
- What is an "all-inclusive playground," and otherwise stated as a "universal inclusive playground"? (What, no more "king of the hill" games, "we got firsts," "we got next," "I got first dibs," "last one in is a ......," etc.)? Are we citizens of Batavia not currently "inclusive" enough? I think we are more "inclusive" than most; and/or are we being too "exclusive"? I think not. (I see quite a lot of new faces around the city in the past few years, "multi" in nearly all categories). If these characterizations are not accurate, which I have stated, is throwing money at them the best way to fix the problem? And if we build the ideal playground, who or what will control or regulate what goes on in that ideal playground?
