Let Newtown Shine

To the Editor:

Spring will soon be here along with a favorite American and Newtown sport — Little League Baseball.

Fairfield Hills is more than a walking track, NYA, and the municipal center. It is about young boys and baseball! Glander Field is an amazing jewel with two baseball diamonds, baseball batting cages, and two rustic picnic areas.

Glander has no parking lot of its own. Parents use what once belonged to Cochran House. Two baseball diamonds will often host four teams of little leaguers, their parents, coaches, umpires etc; each arriving by car.

On weekends, teams are given a “two-hour window” to play. The “next set of teams” play immediately after the prior two teams.

Before you play a sport, you need to warm up. As the day progresses, you will have six to eight sets of people and cars for hours at a time.

Every lined parking spot as well as the area in front of Cochran House is occupied.

No street parking is allowed. On summer weekends, I have witnessed Newtown Police come check to see if cars were parking “appropriately.” Where are people to park if you don’t have ample space? 

Now a developer wants to put apartments in at Cochran House. What is to become of Glander Field? Where are parents supposed to park? Or is the developer next going to ask Newtown children to give up their baseball field too?

My father used to say that there is no sense in planning a route to a destination if you don’t know where you are going. Where are we going with Fairfield Hills? Wasn’t this supposed to be the crown jewel of our town for sports and cultural activities?

Before you look at the money a developer is offering, consider what you are going to lose for Newtown. Our family and countless others have enjoyed many days of spring, fall, and summer baseball at Glander, not to mention the barbecues and team picnics afterwards. Aren’t these the memories that our children will cherish when they are grown?

Before you consider doing away with one of the many wonderful reasons people want to live in Newtown, I want to ask some questions.

When was the last time you saw the wonder in a small child’s face when he hit a baseball into the outfield and no one caught it? When was the last time you witnessed the exhilaration and sense of accomplishment as a 10-year-old slid into home plate and won the game? This is all part of “the American dream” and the joy of childhood.

Do we want to continue to offer Newtown residents all the things we say we want to be known for?

I think we owe our residents — present and future — a renovated and improved the parking lot at Glander Field, not an apartment building.

Let’s focus our resources and time supporting things that really matter to so many of us. Let Newtown shine, now and for years to come. 

Donna Monteleone Randle

4 Erin Lane, Sandy Hook                                             March 28, 2011