[Vision2020] Foot In Mouth Disease

[Ben Twigg]

Mr. Reynolds, 

In my previous post I indicated that I would be happy to respond to your
Kevin Costner analogy, if you explained it further. I will address this,
then excuse myself from this particular thread, since it has not been as
constructive as I had hoped. 

As I suggested yesterday, I believe there would actually be far less than 22
tournaments at the facility every year, and I would support restricting the
number of tournaments at the facility.

The prospect of hosting more tournaments in Moscow is near the bottom of my
list of reasons to support this project. Given my role in the youth soccer
community, one might expect hosting additional tournaments to be a goal of
mine. It isn't, primarily for the following reasons: 

1. I believe the physical demands of playing multiple soccer games in one
day increase the risk of injury and are detrimental to player development. 
2. I believe the market for outdoor youth soccer tournaments in our area is
saturated.

This is not to say that I am completely, generally "anti-tournament," but I
currently do not have any interest in hosting additional soccer tournaments
in Moscow. 

More generally, I believe that the vast majority of people who support this
project do so primarily, if not exclusively, because it would provide
much-needed playfields for Moscow's youth. If we have a mantra, it is "Build
it to meet the needs of Moscow's kids," not "Build it so they will come." 

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss these issues. 

Ben Twigg

-----Original Message-----
From: Reynolds, James [mailto:jreynold at vetmed.wsu.edu] 
Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2005 7:33 AM
To: Ben Twigg
Cc: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: RE: Foot In Mouth Disease

Mr. Twigg,



If you think going to workshops to plan how to blow taxpayers money is
hard work then I would suggest you don't have much of a real job. Many
of us would love the luxury of having such time to fritter away,
especially when it involves spending other's money.

If your group really only wants more fields then why wasn't there more
support for the new high-school and new grade-school  which would have
had ball fields associated? Putting it with the school district also
supplies professional supervisors for the kids instead of relying on the
unknown potential crackpot for a coach. 

The location of the proposed complex is wrong, wrong, wrong for the
advertised complex. How can any group of viable adults plan 300 cars to
be congregating (and coming and going between games) in a spot that has
a single access? Were any of you at the workshops awake? The distance
away from the children is another obvious blunder in the site selection.
How many children will have reasonable access to that site for their own
recreational uses? Can you picture sending a child of say 11-12 years
old to go play in the new complex?

If you want to personalize my comments fine but don't think for a minute
that I am ashamed of anything I say.

The Costner analogy has to do with the predictions by the Director of
Recreation that the tournaments (22/year he claimed) would be a great
boon to the local economy. Costner built the field at great cost to his
farm and the only ones who showed up were ghosts. That is exactly where
this will lead. No way is there such a gathering of ballplayers in the
region who are dying to come here and play ball. Pipe dream and silly.

You are correct that I am one of these co-authors of the letter. I stand
by that letter as well as a similar letter I have written to the Council
and Mayor. The alternative plan as proposed by the Calverts and designed
by Rowen is a good compromise. I do not however trust the current local
government. Their word does not hold. The 1912 building, the Alturas tax
giveaway, and the incubator stand as monuments to their trustworthiness.
"No tax moneys will be used for these projects".

It is of great importance to me that this complex is scaled down to the
size of the alternative plan (giving two new ball fields for children).
If we do this right the 2.9 million dollars could put ball fields in a
few locations in town making them much more useful to the kids than
jamming it all in one distant location.     


James Reynolds
1424 Borah ave
Moscow ID

-- 
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.13.12/193 - Release Date: 12/6/2005