Pay The Piper Now

To the Editor:

It has become increasingly clear that little or nothing is or will be done concerning the repairing of the current fields or construction of new fields. In the recent Board of Education budget there were no monies set aside for the rebuilding of the high school back fields which at this point are not useable for soccer and barely useable for lacrosse or field hockey. Without a watering system these fields will never be useable again.

It is time this town came to grips with reality. With growth all areas of a town will need to grow. More children mean greater field usage and therefore more wear and tear. Even if Fairfield Hills is purchased and fields built there, we are talking a couple of years at least before they would be useable.

In the meantime, what we have is a disaster called fields, which in the realm of politics keeps getting put on the back burner either by John Reed, who has proven over and over that he cares not one bit about the students when it comes to athletics, and the Legislative Council, which finds it easier to delay these items in the budget for fear of a mill rate increase. I like everyone else do not want to pay higher taxes; however, I would be more than willing to pay the piper now and take care of the immediate and  future needs of the children of Newtown

Alan Helfer

17 Timbermill Road, Sandy Hook                       February 2, 2000