Whitewater’s Common Council voted 6-0, with one member absent, to select a bid for artificial turf for the Treyton’s Field of Dreams project, and to authorize down payment on the project.
It was a sound decision, for three reasons.
First, it advanced a worthy project.
Second, a thorough discussion took place, affording time for questions and residents’ comments.
Third, but no less important, the discussion brought to the fore the importance of a diligent, early examination of the environmental, health-related, and economic aspects of future efforts, of whatever type. That’s a standard well worth adopting.
All in all, a good night.
Dear John Adams,
My name is Sojourner Truth, and I’d like to say how proud I am of our common council for not throwing our kids under the bus. I’m of course referring to the common council meeting that took place yesterday. Wow! Given how the Rep from Tarkett couldn’t even say whether or not his product contained lead – or how much lead was in the product – our city council listened to this man of unbiased opinion, honor and integrity and voted in favor of it!! Thank goodness too, because I for one want more lead in my childrens’ lives. There’s simply not enough to go around. I don’t want them exposed to just a few insignificant toxic environments, but lots and lots of them. I want them all to add up to one big toxic exposure! Too bad just the infield of the diamond will be fake, because covering all of Starin Park will be good for the environment, according to Tarkett. No more of that watering nonsense – oh, wait, that’s right we WILL have to water the field because of the heat. Hmm. Oh, no mowing! No pesticides! Good for the environment. Just the pure clean smell of petrochemicals melting in the hot afternoon sun. And crumb rubber. Heavy metals. Mmm. Makes me feel all radioactive inside.
I say we just expose our kids to as much poisonous toxicity as we possibly can, and make everyone think it’s safe because the exposure’s not-really-significant. I say we pave the entire city with asphalt, cover the parks with plastic grass, put out fake flowers, fake trees, and never have to water or mow again! It’s safe, because that yahoo from the PR division of Tarkett said so. And you’ll never have to be bothered with the nuisance of watering, or the disastrous effects of mowing! I’ll go back to school for oncology and really clean up
Thanks for your comments.
I think everyone realizes that Whitewater would have done better to consider these questions sooner. Although the meeting was without rancor (something we’ve sometimes had), that’s not much of a standard.
I supported this project going forward, even if a council decision against artificial turf required substitute funding to replace a possible loss of grants pledged to the program. I’m not often for advocating more government spending, but if funding were lost through political delay, it would be have been reasonable (to me) for a political body to compensate a private effort for the loss of any well-earned funding. (The consequence would be an incentive for more efficient review in the future.)
I’ve no sure answer for your environmental concerns (considering, also, health concerns within that term).
It may be cold comfort to you (but I don’t think it should be) that this project received more scrutiny on these concerns that many others — that certainly should have received such scrutiny — have not.
An ongoing commitment to environmental and fiscal ‘due diligence’ on future projects – something the local press will not encourage – should be part of every new project’s evaluation.
We’ll see.
A friend shared something with me yesterday. He used to work in a hospital for the criminally insane. He said that after working there a while, things began to normalize. Same for us here. After a while, a lot of insane things begin to appear quite normal if you’re consistently surrounded by them.
“Life is so hard, how can we be anything but kind?”
-Buddhist philosophy
its hit or miss around here
As I listened to all the remarks and comments and etc at that meeting, I was confused by the final community member’s well prepared “unplanned speech”. She mentioned several times about how the group’s intent was never to lie or be dishonest or hide the facts, I just really don’t see how or where she felt that from any speaker or council member in the room–I don’t think anybody felt they were hiding or being dishonest, I’m sorry she felt that way! I understand the project completely, but what I don’t understand is the councils lack of investigation from the get go on plastic grass. Some one on that council needs to be the designated devils advocate for ALL subject matter passing thru them. And what I also don’t get is the deep seated need to follow thru on the original plan. I ask those who voted for this reason, what would happen (this is how one plays devils advocate)…what would happen if from the first time Field of Dreams made plans for plastic grass and did their research that at that time showed no problems, but in the year or two raising money new studies came out showing otherwise……would the intent to stick with the plan for the sake of sticking with a plan still be a plan to stick with? Or would the council and Field of Dreams committee have decided to be flexible enough to put a halt to it with the new research out? Used to be that lead was not a problem either, we used it everything..until we found out otherwise. And I really get the concept of cumulative effects. It is a real thing for those of you on the council who obviously laughed while that person spoke. The EPA actually has guidelines that assess cumulative effects on the environment–while a particular project may not have any health or environment concerns that are significant to shut it down, they have formulas methods to consider how a project affects the surrounding area for a bigger picture view. Here’s how the cumulative effect works…. It’s sort of like if a diabetic eats a pinch of sugar, no significant health effects will occur, however if the diabetic continues to eat hourly & daily a pinch of sugar it will begin to accumulate until it does become a problem. But for those who can’t understand that here’s another analogy….take a pinch of salt in your hand….it’s an insignificant amount compared to what’s in the main container right–it’s not much—no significant health hazard but there is a bit of salt there. Most would put that much on their eggs in the morning without batting an eye lash. But now lets take that same insignificant amount of salt and everyone in that meeting that night adds the same amount to the pile. hmmm starting to grow isn’t it? would you put that amount on your eggs? probably not without gagging afterwards… and would you put that amount on your eggs every morning? My guess would be a big no because we all know that would begin to be cause for health problems. That first little pinch had no significant health hazards, but wow do those cumulative amounts start to add up eh? I wish I had spoken up that night. Our council really needs to do that….it’s their freaking job to consider all aspects. SOME ONE PLEASE LEARN TO PLAY THE DEVILS ADVOCATE GAME! One more thing as one council member also put it before moving onto the next subject….I get what he said about if we consider every little issue and put a stop to it we would never do anything in life or something like that he said… But really?? Can we at least when we consider these things to look at ALL the alternatives and choose the lesser of them? Where it concerns health and the environment it should be our motto. I understand that we cannot get rid of it all in our life….our society has grown way beyond that and it would be impossible to go back to cavemen days, but we have choices so lets choose to be the best stewards of the earth that we can be. After all we are the smarter of the species of animals on earth or so we are told we are, but sometimes I wonder. And wow here’s a thought as I sit and address these issues from the meeting…..and that was the need to make this field so unique that people would come…..what if that uniqueness was organic grass? Hmmm there is such a movement for that through out the country already…people questioning our use of plastics and chemicals and pesticides, people buying more and demanding more organic and learning more about the benefits of organic. Just what if that was the “gig” the “draw” for this field, bet people would come for that too. And wow….here’s another concept what if Whitewater as a city took on that goal of becoming known as the organic city. Could be a tourism draw! Think about it oh great council members and leaders of our city. Think about it. Be a leader in organics!
forgot one thing….to the person who thought plastic grass was a good way to make playing ball safe for our children who are scared of the ball to start with…..why not just give them a video game to play ball with…no injuries, it’s very predictable, so safe and no fear!!! You know what playing ball in the hay field did to those of us in the “olden” days, it made us use our brains to quickly respond to unexpected things coming our way. It made us fast, responsive and creative to problems that don’t have dependable predictable solutions. Something kids who grow up on predictable plastic grass will never ever learn. Maybe that’s why the big leagues are doing away with plastic, the challenges are gone– if we don’t challenge our selves, why bother.
Sorry to burst your bubble, DD, but the good old days are long gone. One of the best things about living today is having so much information and having it so readily available. We also have come very far in our liberal use of common sense. I like your idea of virtual baseball rather than the real thing, though. In fact, we seem so intent on turning real baseball into a virtual experience, why do this thing half-way? Common sense, people.
As for your comments on plastic grass… I take personal offense. I have been told by sources in the know that it’s not only good for the environment, but that it’s healthier for us, too. We don’t KNOW that it causes cancer. Just because it has all these known cancer-causing components doesn’t mean anyone’s going to get cancer. Cancer, schmancer. Or irreversible bone marrow problems, which doctors nowadays are saying is caused by exposure to benzene. Would our government allow benzene in products like soda and plastic grass – especially if they knew they were to be used by KIDS?? Look at the facts, people. Geez, they’ve been putting benzene in soda for years now, and all of a sudden benzene’s the bad guy? Ok, it’s not exactly benzene, but if it’s allowed to get warm, the sodium benzoate in soda turns into benzene with the help from citric acid.
Please, we know so much more now. Our society is on a health kick! Everybody’s so into health and fitness right now. People are all out running with their ipods and those things on their arms. C’mon – even our Common Council has concluded that the health effects of plastic grass are INconclusive. Don’t you trust your government? And as for your suggesting organic grass….lol!!! Holy mackeral, you people are nuts. Accept the facts that our governement has spoken, and the community vowed, in great numbers to expose your kids to plastic grass. I’ll tell you where the danger is. The danger lies in you trying to thwart progress! Danger, schmanger, I say. That’s my philosophy, and I’m sticking to it!!