Nike site is not the proper location for housing program

Much has been said about the former Nike missile site in Holmdel, which was transformed into what we today call Phillips Park. Please try to picture yourself having volunteered for six years to a fine organization that is responsible for providing both recreation and tournament-level soccer, basketball, baseball and softball for more than 1,200 children.

This organization, which does not have its own facilities and uses township and Board of Education facilities scattered throughout the town, ran fund-raising activities and golf outings so that, after years of planning, it was able to provide more than $75,000 in a joint project with the town to renovate a Little League field and provide outdoor lights for the children.

Your organization also asked the township to expand the park to include additional parking and facilities way before the Monmouth Housing Alliance (MHA) application was ever thought about.

This organization, the Holmdel Youth Activity Association (HYAA), is not about turning its back on the less fortunate, but instead must fight not only to protect its limited facilities but, more importantly, the safety and security of our children. We chose Phillips Park for the outdoor lights because of its isolated location with least impact to surrounding neighbors. For the same reasons, this is not the proper location for transient or sheltered housing, nor does this type of housing belong within 100 yards of a playground and two ball fields which are used and visited by more than 500 children on a weekly basis.

We support MHA and its efforts, but not at or across from a park. I understand those that are for housing at this location, but do they really understand why we are opposed to the housing?

John Graziano

HYAA treasurer

Holmdel