Budget Cuts Undermine Park & Rec

To the Editor:

The recommended cuts to the Park and Recreation budget are extensive and not in the best interest of our children. Our children’s fields are overcrowded and over used (soccer, lacrosse and baseball are played on the same fields). These fields do not get the rest they need. This is not because the Park and Recreation Department does not do their job. They are understaffed and they need new equipment.

This year the Board of Selectmen cut out of their budget a new garage, a pick-up truck with a plow, two self-propelled field painters, a pole chainsaw, and two soccer/lacrosse fields and one employee.

On March 1, the finance committee headed by John Kortze cut another two baseball fields from their budget and put back in the repair of Oakview Field. This does not help the overcrowding of these town fields. These cuts to the Park and Recreation budget are again a problem that the children of the town must deal with. Again the children are playing on overcrowded and over used fields!

Who suffers? The children of Newtown suffer again!

Robert Elias

11 Pebble Road, Newtown                                         March 4, 2000