Mid’town golf course proposal a bad idea

Most recently it has been reported in the local press that the Middletown Township Committee wants to take 75 acres of Stevensen Park and turn it into a golf course. The numbers are there, they claim, to make this happen with golf facilities consultant John LaPoint claiming 15,700 potential golfers are ready to rumble.

So, let me see if I get this straight, the Township Committee wants to take a beautiful-nature-filled, non-urban sprawl, open area park that presently serves 70,000-plus Middletown residents and the residents of other surrounding communities and change it so 15,700 golfers have something to do on the weekends.

Wait, it gets better. They want to use your tax dollars (Green Acres money) to perpetrate this folly. This will be a great revenue-maker, seems to be their battle cry. I think another revenue-maker of theirs is the Middletown train station parking lot, where a parking permit entitles you to little if you don’t get there before 7:30 a.m. and a $50 parking ticket if you are desperate enough.

There are enough problems in Middletown without adding to the commotion. We have problems with our school budgets, unwanted soccer fields in residential neighborhoods, thousands of miles of road surface that needs re-paving, low-income housing woes, and the infamous Middletown train station parking lot just to name a few. It’s too bad that projects like the proposed golf course cannot be voted on by the public. We have to trust the common sense of our elected officials.

Many thoughts come to mind when deciding upon who to vote for at election time; honesty, integrity, leadership qualities, just to name a few. Revenue making is not one that sticks out in my mind. As a matter of fact, I don’t want revenue making in my local government. I want my local government, Middletown Township Committee, to run on the money it collects from me and my fellow taxpayers, and I want that tax money used for the upkeep of what is already there and not to fund business ventures the committee wants to run. Leave the parks alone; they are fine just the way they are. Stevenson Park is supposed to be for everyone’s recreation, not just people who play golf. The Township Committee would be wise to view our parks as a resource, not as dollar signs.

Roger Warde

Middletown