The other day, I went to my first "Coffee with the Manager." I thought it was a nice gesture on the part of the Municipality and the Community Relations Board. Thanks, folks!
I was disappointed by the turn out. There were just a handful of us, in addition to the Rec staff and members of the Community Relations Board. Not one athletic supporter in sight, despite the nasty comments made in the April 22, 2011 Lebo Citizens post, Timely letter to the editor.
I listened to the requests directed to Dave Donnellan and was shocked to hear about the poor conditions at the Rec Center, Golf Course, and Tennis Center. I heard about holes in the walls, lack of hot water, walls and floors in terrible shape, lockers in terrible shape, etc. The answer given by Mr. Donnellan was that we had no money in the budget to fix these things. I couldn't take it any longer. I had to say something. I said that this is why people are so upset with the McNeilly Field project. Our assets are deteriorating. Yet, we want to start working on something else instead. Dave Donnellan said that the lack of fields is the reason Bird Park is a mess. It is overused and nothing will help that except more fields. Steve Feller started to say that I made a good point and maybe we could turf Bird Park. I interrupted him, (Sorry Steve) saying we have ONE Rec Center, ONE golf course, ONE library and ONE Tennis Center. We need to maintain what we have or we will have another neglected high school scenario on our hands.
Naturally, I have many more questions. Are there other places that need tender loving care in Mt. Lebanon, besides the holes in the walls at the Rec Center, walls needing painted, or sadly - poorly maintained memorials?
How big is a soccer field? Bigger than a football field? How much would it cost to turf a soccer field? Or repair the holes in the walls at the Rec Center, and all the other things mentioned at that meeting?
We will have a one time windfall due to pension contributions. I want to say that it is $600,000, but I might have dreamt that number. Could we take the $125,000 pledge made by the Soccer Association and add it to the wish list to fix up what we have already?
The playground in the main park is not maintained nearly as well as one would hope. There are two pieces of musical equipment for children on the playground.
ReplyDeleteOne is a type of tube drum where you hit the top of the drum with your hand and it makes a sound. Kids have filled up the tubes with dirt and mulch making the tubes ineffective. Simple maintenance would fix this as you need only to open up the cage with the tubes and empty them. However, the cage is normally locked shut.
The other is a xylophone which has been missing all four of its mallets for the past three or four years. Children make the sounds by finding sticks and hitting the bars with the sticks. It also uses the tube system and one of the tubes is also filled with dirt and mulch.
Both of these issues have been reported. They fixed the tubes once, a few years ago, but the mallets have never been replaced.
The trash cans at the playground are frequently overflowing, especially when there has been an event at the nearby pavilion.
The water fountain drain is clogged up and so it fills up and begins flowing onto the ground. This is due to kids sticking rocks, gum, etc. down the drain.
There’s also some light graffiti on some of the playground equipment, which usually gets cleaned eventually.
I think that all of these issues can be addressed with regular maintenance in the playground.
Matthew, I forwarded your comment on to Public Works.
ReplyDeleteElaine