Iread the Your Turn guest column (“Jackson Residents Deserve Better”) by Anthony Beja in the April 22 Tri-Town News. I feel it is important to correct some errors in his commentary about rest rooms for the Bartley Road, Jackson, softball fields.
The girls softball program has about 300 participants, as I am aware. It is a township-sponsored program with many great volunteers. Many of these same volunteers also assist the wrestling and basketball programs that are also run by the recreation department.
I am a youth baseball and softball umpire as well as a former football official who works all over Ocean and Monmouth counties. I regularly see fields with various degrees of maintenance. I have observed everything from gorgeous snack concession stands and meticulously maintained rest rooms to fields that have “portable johns” and no wash-up facilities.
I have even been to fields that have no rest room facilities. Trust me, it is tough to umpire a doubleheader at these fields.
I believe we must always weigh the cost of a new facility, with the anticipated level of use and the burden it places on budgets. The local Little League baseball leagues and Pop Warner football are run as nonprofit organizations whose membership funds the programs through registration fees and donations.
A township-sponsored program is missing two out of three of these things. Can a township-run program “sell” and “make a profit” on concession stands? Who is the keeper of the funds? Who disburses the funds? Who is accountable for the funds? How often are the fields used? These questions need to be answered in the future.
Mr. Beja fails to point out some important facts. The Bartley Road softball fields would not exist if Mike Kafton, Marvin Krakower and I did not support major expenses to provide this facility to girls in the community.
We were the ones who authorized the purchase of the land to be used for these fields. To suggest that there is some form of deliberate discrimination going on here is an outrageous distortion.
At the time we made the decision to proceed with this field, we were prepared to move forward with additional improvements.
Johnson Park, a much larger facility, has used portable toilets but no running water wash-up facilities for decades. Since I have not served in government since June 2006, I was in no position to approve any township projects.
What I do believe is that we must build on the things that have worked in the past and learn from our mistakes. When that (Bartley Road) field was built, our top priority was to simply get a field up and running so the kids could use it immediately.
What I propose now is to review all our needs throughout the entire township. We need to set priorities and insist that the professionals who do the design work think outside the box. They must do everything possible to cut costs.
The fact that bond money is sitting in an account does not make it a license to overpay simply to get a project completed at any cost. Our decisions must strike a fair balance between need, cost and impact on taxpayers. Nothing less is acceptable in these difficult times.
Sean Giblin
Jackson
Editor’s note: The author of the letter is a candidate for a seat on the Jackson Township Council in the May 11 municipal election.