By:Ruth Luse
While we do understand some of the concerns of the Timberlane Middle School/Central High School complex’s neighbors – as reported in a Page 1A account this week – and agree that they ought to be studied and addressed, we support any efforts made by area residents and officials to create a Hopewell Valley Recreational Complex.
The need for such facilities has existed for many years. For a community of this size and character, there is no reason why it should not have some centralized recreational area – as do so many other Mercer County communities.
The community has relied on the use of school district fields and some at Washington Crossing State Park, among other areas, for many activities for years. Often, recreational groups have done so at the expense of the condition of the school fields, some of which sometimes could not be used for the school programs for which they were intended because of overuse.
For example, a few years ago, the Hopewell Valley American Legion Post 339 baseball team, which traditionally uses a Central High field, had to play a season at The Pennington School while field work was done at CHS. Sally Turner, school board president, says in this week’s edition that fields behind Timberlane cannot be used next year because they lack top soil, making it necessary to ship students to other sites.
Plans for use of the school-district-owned 48-acre site near Timberlane were presented to members of the Hopewell Township Committee July 20. In June, the Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education approved the use of the land for recreational purposes. The school district, according to Ms. Turner, needs the fields, too. "If we don’t do it as a partnership, the school board will do it on our own and then tax dollars will be spent on it," she says.
The partnership includes Hopewell Borough, Hopewell Township, Pennington Borough, the Hopewell Valley YMCA and various local sports leagues and recreation associations.
Sheryl Stone, Hopewell Valley Municipal Alliance chairman, says financial support for the project is there, as noted in this week’s account.
It also is unlikely that the land in question would be selected for another future school building. As Ms. Turner says this week, "We have been told we can’t put a school on the site because of water and sewer issues."
We, members of the Alliance, and government and school officials everywhere know that making sports and recreational facilities available to young people gives them constructive activities with which to fill their spare time. While it is true that not every young person will take advantage of these opportunities, a community that has the expectations for its youth that Hopewell Valley has really owes such a complex to its younger neighbors and residents – if it can be afforded by the community at large.
So why not use land that taxpayers already own to develop a needed complex like the one proposed??
