EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK
By: Ruth Luse
In our March 7 edition we urged people to get out and vote March 12 on the Back Timberlane athletic fields plan.
We specifically said in our headline, "Don’t disappoint us with a poor showing at the polls Tuesday."
Well, we are disappointed. The Valley has 13,706 registered voters. Of those, about 4,800 cast ballots on a question that had generated, we thought, a considerable degree of public interest over a long period of time.
We are disappointed that decisions that affect us all continue to be made by far less than a majority of those qualified to vote in elections. We have to wonder where the other people are on election day and what it would take to get them to the polls.
We also are, of course, disappointed in the result of the March 12 balloting. We believe the need for the athletic fields was explained well by many. And, we still believe the fields are needed.
Why was this proposal defeated? Let us offer a few of our thoughts:
The fear of more taxes. This we can understand. Ever since Gov. James McGreevey took office in January, we have been hearing about the state budget deficit, state job layoffs, the need to raise billions in revenue to offset the budget deficit, the E-ZPass disaster, talk about raising the gasoline tax, talk about increasing vehicle registration fees, the ongoing failure of state government to deal with the high cost of car insurance, etc. We could go on an on.
What do people do when faced with government spending and failures over which they have no control? They vote against proposals over which they do things like school projects.
The opinion of some that school fields should not be used by outside groups, such as community recreational sports leagues. Hopewell Valley school officials always have been called upon to allow these leagues to use their fields. We cannot remember a time when this was not common practice. Perhaps it should not be, but until others come up with alternatives, what other choices do some of these leagues have?
The opinion that academics should come first. We agree that academics must be a school district’s top priority. But, we also believe physical education and related activities such as intramural sports and interscholastic competition are key to the personal development of many students, who take certain values they learn through team and individual competition with them into later life. There are many young people who will get a lot more out of playing a sport than they will from taking French lessons.
In short, there must be a balance between academics and athletics. We are talking about public schools, which should be giving all students a foundation on which to build their futures.
The opinion that the 48 acres behind Back Timberlane should remain open space. While we sympathize with those who have concerns about protecting our environment, we cannot comprehend why neighbors of this particular site do not understand that one day this land probably will be used for school purposes. That’s what it was bought for. That’s why the school district owns it. Perhaps those who would like to see it remain as is should consider buying it from the school district.
Many arguments for and against the Back Timberlane proposal were voiced in this paper prior to March 12. Many made sense. Quite a few did not. But the fact remains that years of work by many people on the athletic fields proposal went down the proverbial drain March 12 for a while, at least.
But, the need as Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education President Sally Turner said after the March 12 defeat "will not go away."
We call upon our school district and municipal leaders and those dedicated people who made up the Recreation Roundtable to begin anew the task of addressing the need, because it remains in our opinion a crucial one.