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An Open Letter To Mayor Tamburro

The Honorable Gus Tamburro
Mayor, Evesham Township, NJ

Dear Mr. Mayor,

I am writing to you solely on my behalf but believe I represent a large group of Marlton residents. I ask for your time and a response to an issue that is of great importance to many of your constituents.

Marlton is, and has been for some time, a laughing stock in the southern New Jersey area because of the poor quality of our athletic fields. This is a source of great irritation for the coaches and parents of children who play sports under the auspices of the Marlton Recreation Council.

I have coached in this town for five years and have watched as parents and other coaches have struggled while attempting to make a field safe and playable. This is an outrage.

Take a trip to Laurel Acres Park in Mount Laurel and see what they have to offer. The baseball fields there are among the best in the entire state. Drive a few more miles and observe the fields that are provided to the young athletes in Medford. Their soccer fields are second to none.

After that, take a drive to Voorhees and walk around the soccer, football and baseball facilities they have constructed. I could go on, but I believe that you get the point.

Now Mr. Mayor, take a few minutes out of your Saturday in the autumn and go to Savich Field. Take a look at the hundreds of children playing soccer there. Then look a little closer at the condition of those fields. Not one field is level and most would not pass as playable in any other surrounding town. These are the fields we play on. These are the fields we play out of town teams on and have to hang our heads in embarrassment because of there poor condition.

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I have traveled to tournaments where the town that is hosting welcomes teams from surrounding states and adds tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to their coffers because they have the facilities to host such an event. These tournaments not only assist the local sports programs but also bring much needed revenue to the local small business owners who are the backbone of any towns’ economy. We can only dream of hosting such an event.

Are you aware Mr. Mayor, that in the last several years there have been teams that have won state championships in several different sports? If a team is going to work hard to reach that high of a level of ability, don’t they deserve at least to play on fields of which they can be proud?

All we ask of you is that you finally address the concerns of your constituents. We will need money of course. But that money does not only have to be from the local budget. There are numerous sources of funding that can be tapped if you choose to exert the effort. We would also need land. That land can be purchased utilizing open space money that is available. I know this to be the case because it has been done in numerous other towns.

In conclusion, there are many members of the community who would donate time and/or money to construct suitable playing fields. As a small business owner in this town, I will be among the first to pledge support. I know of many people who feel the same. What is needed now is the leadership of our elected officials. True leadership that will work with us to procure the needed funds and join with those of us who will organize this undertaking. Can we rely on you, Mr. Mayor?

Respectfully,

Scott Welsh
Marlton, NJ 08053