Letter to the Editor
By Bonnie Barrington
A recent non-authored article on a newly formed Jackson website entitled ?The Purr of Recreation?,? in referred to Leaders of Jackson Township Private Sports Groups as ?Wolves in the Henhouse?.? As a former employee of the Jackson Township Dept. of Recreation, and as a Jackson Taxpayer, I saw first-hand the waste of taxpayer dollars, and the manner in which the system was abused. ?Employees who just don?t show up to work or barely put in their required hours, abuse of sick time, and rampant nepotism leading to lack of accountability and productivity. ?The focus should be placed on correcting these issues and generating income by thinking ?outside of the box?, rather than trying to take the easy way out and double-dip into the pocketbooks of Jackson Residents.? Contrary to the author?s view, recreational field usage fees ARE just another word for ?taxes?.
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There are two key points that warrant debate with facts and common sense. Both of these misconceptions reinforce my belief that it is of the utmost importance that the formation of the Recreation Commission is conducted properly, its objectives are made clear, as well as the criteria for those chosen to serve.
The first point of debate is the statement made in this article that it is a potential conflict of interest having those very same residents affected by user fees serving on the very board formulated to discuss this issue.
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This statement is contradictory in itself.? Who else, besides?those individuals representing the sports groups know the ins and outs of their organization and the finances involved in successfully operating their sports entity, and the many costs incurred to run these tournaments. An average softball tournament could incur almost $4,000 in umpire fees. The fees that were proposed in the ?ordinance that fell from the sky? would have put them out of commission.? While I see no harm in having individuals who are not part of a sports entity in this town serve on this Commission, this needs to be done fairly and consistently.? This responsibility falls on the Mayor and the Township council.
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The second point warranting debate is the myth that town-based sports organizations are ?profiting? from their tournaments and clinics, thereby justifying the township imposing user fees for town- based sports groups.? As stated in an excerpt from the above-mentioned article:
?While the cost of recreation basketball and the Summer camp program are of concern to many, the real push-back came from the leagues over proposed fees for tournaments. Until now few realized that our leagues and travel teams were running these tournaments on township fields for little or no cost. Resident and Girls Recreation Softball advocate, Tony Beja changed that when he described the structure of these tournaments at a recent township meeting. Beja explained that upwards of $10,000 can be collected in fees for a single day tournament by the sponsoring league or travel team. With no fees being charged by the township, taxpayers are left to pay for maintenance, to have DPW clean the area of trash, and even the cost of electricity for lighting if it is used during evening or night games.
Why would the author interview an Anthony Beja, an individual who has never been involved in running a private sports group, a sports tournament or clinic and has little to no knowledge of the topic at hand?? To say he is an advocate of girls softball is contradicted by his statement alone.? If you are an advocate, then you would realize how important these events are to those involved in the sport. I have been involved with running numerous softball tournaments and organizing clinics over the past 15 year.? I ran the township softball program.? Why wasn?t I called and interviewed for this article?? By doing so, the author would have gotten the answer he WASN?T looking for.? All this is being done to justify imposing these fees.? Any respectable sports group cleans up the facility, fields and the bathrooms when they are done.? Please tell me what is the difference between DPW cleaning the bathrooms at Bartley fields after a busy weekend of kids playing random sports on the fields and cleaning up after an organized event?? NOTHING!? This is what we pay taxes for.
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To charge usage fees for fields to conduct these tournaments is double dipping into the very same pockets of the same people who pay taxes in this town. They should be entitled to use these fields for their children to participate in these sports without charge.? To justify usage fees for tournaments by stating that ?Out-of-Town? teams are playing on ?our? fields makes no absolutely no sense.? It is our taxpayers ? parents and coaches ? who are hosting and working hard to make these events a success that seems to be the fact that this article ignores. Who else are our home-based teams supposed to invite to tournaments besides out of town teams?
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One must realize that hosting tournaments and clinics is a lifeline and crucial to the existence of these sports entities. ??Almost serving as a fundraiser of sorts, the monies generated from hosting these events are used for one purpose. ?To help these sports groups generate funds to accomplish their goal of being self-sustaining and providing a service to the youth in this town. ?Thousands of dollars are needed to run these organizations.? Gym fees paid to the Board of Education during the winter months, tournament fees for their teams, college showcases for their players, participant hardship cases for basic registration and national tournaments. The more costs these organizations would incur thru these fees imposed on them, the more they would need to charge the participants, thereby allowing fewer girls to play for financial reasons.
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By hosting tournaments in this town, income is also generated for local businesses in town when these teams come to town and patronize the local businesses and eateries.? They help Jackson Township get put on the map and become known as the sports town that it is. You can?t get any better publicity than having people physically visit your town.? Most importantly, the youth of this town is involved and given opportunities.? You just can?t put a price on that.
Posted by Reader Submitted on Jul 19 2012. Filed under Jackson Sports, Letters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.matt kenseth bridge to nowhere primary results dale earnhardt jr michigan primary school shooting daytona 500 winner
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