To the Editor:
Having read Ken Moore's excellent summary of the Brickyard school site in the Potomac Almanac, August 1-7 issue, I have several questions:
Why would the State School Board reprimand the Montgomery County School Board twice for their failure to follow proper procedure and then approve this?
Why is a traffic study being conducted on Saturday when the problem is going to be weekday traffic? Will they count cars on weekdays between 4 and 7 p.m.?
3) Why is no consideration of the educational potential of the farm being considered?
4) Why is there no consideration of the number of fields we already have in the area, as well as other plots Mr. Moore mentions?
5) Why aren't the fields being located closer to where the need is? (This area has more fields than it needs and is already providing fields for kids from other communities.)
6) Why does the county administration continue to maintain this is "to benefit the community" when the fields are going to be fenced and locked when not in use and the administration has stated these fields are to serve Chevy Chase and North Potomac?
7) Why has the county administration refused to release public information that is supposed to be publicly available?
8) Why is the administration calling an unusable corner "a turf farm" when there is no way to farm this patch for turf?
The administration evidently believes that if people constantly read that these are "community ball fields," they will believe this is true even though this is not the case according to what the administration has told us.
As Mr. Moore points out, there are other plots in the area that would serve the community much better by spreading them out to lessen driving distances and to avoid traffic congestion.
This is not about community needs, this about a soccerplex (which is what the administration has called it) that is going to make mega-bucks for MSI, a private enterprise profiting off of public land and paying a pittance for it — only $500 more a year than the organic farmer, who has more to offer the community, the county, and the entire subregion with school field trips to learn first hand about farming, vegetables and good nutrition, with organic feed and seed for other organic farmers, as well as instruction for other farmers on how to farm organically and how to save the watershed, not to mention growing organic food for Montgomery County School kids vs parking lots for 300 cars, four soccer fields, a grandiose snack bar, and, of course, let's not forget the "turf farm." (I want to see the day they get turf farming equipment in that back right corner.)
The emperor has no clothes. Once we've lost this unique resource for our kids, we won't be able to replace it.
Elisabeth Waugaman