Last night, Whitewater’s Common Council discussed beginning construction of the Treyton Kilar Field of Dreams, to build a baseball diamond and related facilities on a part of Starin Park. I’ve written previously in support of the project, and believe Council made the right decision last night to begin construction by awarding an adjusted bid.
See, for example, a sample of previous posts in support: The Common Council’s positive vote for the Field of Dreams, On the 7.24.12 Special Council Session: Supporting Treyton Kilar’s Field of Dreams Project, Daily Bread for 1-31-11.
(I’ve neither personal nor political connection to the organizers of this project; like so many others in this community, my support is simply recognition of a good idea.)
Last night, one heard concerns – and one can read those concerns repeated elsewhere again today – about the city’s financial contribution to this project. These concerns, about a community-oriented and charitable project are, I think, misplaced. The full discussion, by my count, was a thorough one, lasted just under twenty-nine minutes.
The Field of Dreams is a fundamentally private initiative, involving years of private effort in time and money, with broad-based support across Whitewater.
It’s different in goals and character from countless prior city projects that have relied entirely on public money, with no real support among ordinary residents, flacked by ceaseless false claims about their supposed value to others. I am well-sensitive to the harm those kinds of projects have caused to Whitewater’s economy.
It’s ironic, though, that some gentlemen, who have boosted so many wholly public projects (millions in taxpayer funds for money-suck buildings, tax incremental districts without adequate private guarantees that have gone bust, crony-capitalist buses, all to the detriment of this city’s future) would write critically about this truly community-based, significantly private effort.
To oppose the Field of Dreams diamond after so many common men and women have worked so diligently would be to turn the back of one’s hand to a genuinely community-rooted effort that’s raised hundreds of thousands in private contributions of money and volunteer time by value. Rejection or delay would have been a disincentive to so much effort from so many ordinary people. One hopes for more, not less, of that kind of private effort.
Council made the right decision to award the sensibly-adjusted bid; further delay would have been, and would be, a mistake.
Best wishes for a smooth and happy groundbreaking.