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New Berlin Citizens for Responsible Government

Ralph Heun, a 38-year resident of New Berlin, will be blogging about issues of concern to the New Berlin Citizens for Responsible Government, an organization that promotes fiscal responsibility among all units of government.

NBCRG advances proposal to save millions of tax dollars

By Ralph Heun
Thursday, Jul 10 2008, 10:24 PM

New Berlin Park & Recreation wants $3,200,000 to $3,800,000 to build baseball fields at Milham Park.

New Berlin citizens for Responsible Government(NBCRG) has researched the proposed development of baseball fields at The Milham facility, 20900 W Cleveland avenue, and would like to suggest a cost efficient alternative plan:

For starts, The City of New Berlin and the New Berlin school district should jointly investigate the concept of using the existing baseball fields at Eisenhower and New Berlin West high schools.  We also feel that other parks and schools should be incorporated into this joint venture.

Instead of the city having to raise taxes to fund the construction costs and the many thousands in annual operating costs, the two units of government can work together to save taxpayers dollars, and still be able to provide well maintained facilities for all the city and school baseball programs.

The New Berlin West field is only a mile away from the proposed Milham Park site.  Concession stands are availble there and in some other locations.

The possibility of incorporating the VFW baseball fields on Beloit Road should also be considered in a public-private partnership use agreement.

Let us all think outside the box and be willing to try something different.  We believe that the schools and the parks can compliment each other, while possibly saving taxpayers millions of dollars.

Public informational meeting on Monday July 14 at City Hall 6:00 pm.

 

 

 

Comments

Perceptive   

Wouldn't this proposed alternative arrangement also cost taxpayers more money?  The softball fields at the schools are not maintained at this time and do not have restroom facilities available.

What about the high school teams that use West and Eisenhower for practices and games of their own?  Would this plan really be feesible or an inconvience to an already strapped School District?

As a mother of three children who all play ball in New Berlin, along with literally hundreds of others from public and non-public schools across the community, I believe this issue should be looked at logically and rationally, before alarming community members.

Currently, my children's teams vie for practice time on the fields at Elmwood, Poplar Creek and Orchard Lane (where there are no restrooms for them during their 2 hour practices - even the 5 year olds) these fields are not maintained, full of weeds and not well drained.

My children play games almost every night of the week from May until July at Malone Park (behind City Hall), Pro-Health Park and Calhoun Park. I commend my children's league for their creative and efficient uses of our community resources already.

However, my pocketbook stings from the gas I am burning daily circumventing New Berlin in my mini-van dropping one at a practice, one at a game, etc.

I strongly believe that this issue is more than a pork-barrel frivolity and should be weighed carefully.

Thank you.

July 11, 2008 2:14 PM

geno53151   

I am sure there are thousands of New Berlin citizens who are also

finding it difficult to pay high gas and food prices and do not want

to, or cannot afford more taxes.

July 11, 2008 8:36 PM

Paul Gallagher   

This city already has a lot of ball fields. Unless the city can demonstrate that the revenues from the fields pay the majority of the $3.2 million, I can't support it. We have far more dire issues in this city to spend millions on, such as maintaining the parks we already have, and road rebuilding. At this time, these new facilities are probably a luxury we can't afford.

July 12, 2008 8:04 AM

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