The Need For A Sports Field Complex

(The following open letter has been received for publication.)

Dear Members of the Fairfield Hills Advisory Committee:

We are the senior officers representing virtually every outdoor recreational athletic organization in Newtown. We have come together to write this letter because we are concerned about the present and future need for the athletic playing fields to provide for the recreational activities of the children and adults of Newtown.

We represent eight organizations with total participants in excess of 3,200. We can testify to the problems resulting from fields that are overused, overcrowded, under-maintained, and too few in numbers. Some obvious problems are deteriorating field conditions, scheduling conflicts, parking problems, lack of playing and practice times, and a higher incidence of injuries. Some not so obvious problems include registration freezes, disagreements over field allocations, friction between the athletic organizations, conflicts over shared fields, a reluctance to invest organizational dollars in field improvements, a lack of regard for the facilities, lack of respect for the efforts of the Parks & Recreation Department and a heightened liability to the town.

While our problems are extensive, today we have a window of opportunity. Fairfield Hills provides us with a unique, now-or-never opportunity to create a complex of multi-use fields, managed by the Parks & Recreation Department, capable of providing for the needs of our children and adults to the year 2020 and beyond. We believe that such a complex, if managed by or in conjunction with the Newtown Parks and Recreation Department, would provide the ideal solution to satisfying the town’s present and future needs for additional athletic fields well into the 21st century.

Therefore, we urge you to make an athletic field complex part of your vision for the future of Fairfield Hills.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Dennis LaPak, President Newtown Babe Ruth League, Inc.

Alan Helfer, President Newtown Soccer Club

Michael Nowak, President Newtown Pop Warner Football

Christopher Dennis, President Newtown Men’s Weeknight Softball

Kenneth Law, President Newtown Youth Lacrosse

Joanne DiDonato, President Newtown Women’s Softball

Thomas Egan, Commissioner Newtown Men’s Sunday Softball League

Peter Blomberg, President Newtown Youth Softball

Newtown                                  November 12, 1999