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Alternative solutions for ballfields can be found

Re: Kids need place to play, but where will it be? Diane Steinle column, June 20.

Recreational fields are being proposed in the neighborhood that already houses McMullen-Booth Elementary School. Together, the two facilities would produce seven-day-a-week, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. noise, traffic and lights, so I looked for an alternative.

Across from the existing soccer complex on McMullen-Booth Road, just north of State Road 580, is a driving range. It's a private business, but it sits on land owned by Clearwater, and the lease is up in a few short years. I spoke to owner Michael Murphy, who is a civic-minded guy willing to discuss vacating the property early. This location would hold more fields, offers direct access to a main road, and sports lighting would be far from anyone's home.

This acreage offers the soccer community a permanent solution, rather than the temporary fix near the school. (Those fields would have to be destroyed in the future to make way for a planned middle school, putting us in the awkward position of having to cut soccer facilities.)

What to do with the land near McMullen-Booth Elementary, you ask? How about placing the therapeutic horse center proposed for the Brooker Creek Preserve there instead? The land is already surrounded with horse barns. You avoid more controversy over intrusion at Brooker Creek Preserve and place the horse therapy right between the Attention Home and the Paul B. Stevens Exceptional School where it's most needed.

This is only one scenario and it may not completely solve the problem, but the point is that workable solutions exist, we just have to be diligent in looking for them. Of course, kids need a place to play and the great demand for soccer fields should be met. In land-poor Pinellas County, that seems like a problem, but solutions are all around us.

Beth Rawlins, Clearwater

Disruption of neighborhood is reason enough to look harder

Re: Kids need place to play, but where will it be? Diane Steinle column, June 20.

We have been good neighbors and coexist nicely with McMullen-Booth Elementary School. Now we face double jeopardy. Beyond the current school hours of Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., we're being asked to deal with lights, noise and traffic seven days a week from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m.

The proposed soccer facility, while providing only a temporary fix, will cause many serious problems for our established neighborhoods, violating Clearwater's own Community Development Code, which states:

"The intent and purpose of the Institutional "I" District is to establish areas where public and private organizations can establish and operate institutions with a public interest in support of the quality of life of the citizens of the City of Clearwater without adversely impacting the integrity of adjacent residential neighborhoods, diminishing the scenic quality of the City of Clearwater or negatively impacting the safe efficient movement of people and things within the City of Clearwater."

Here is an idea proposing a more viable long-term solution for this challenge.

Clearwater has two rather large disc golf courses just a few miles away. Convert the NE Coachman disc course into soccer fields. The aerial view shows just how unobtrusive this can be. Or they can swap - offer soccer at NE Coachman and move disc golf over to Union Street. This will eliminate the lights, noise and traffic problems and still serve both soccer and disc golf.

A public official recently stated, "We are doing this because it is easy." A resident responded, "What is easy isn't always right and what is right isn't always easy."

So what is Pinellas to do? I say to our elected officials, go do the hard work that we elected you to do, find a suitable location and keep in mind Clearwater's own Community Development Code and the integrity of our "adjacent residential neighborhoods."

George LaBanca, Clearwater

Death of restrained man indicates lack of training

Re: Violent drunks must be subdued, letter, June 7.

First of all, Thomas Tipton died of asphyxia. Here is a true story to help put things in perspective.

A 5-foot-4-something air marshal subdued a dangerous 6-foot-2, 285-pound man with two quick moves, one with a pressure point. How is it that three of our police officers can't subdue a 270-pound man? Wouldn't you agree this is a lack of proper training? Taxpayers' money should go toward training instead of Tasers, which are obviously ineffective.

How is it right, then, that what is declared a "homicide" can be determined by Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe to be considered "the least amount of force"? I would say the air marshal mentioned, along with other properly trained police officers, myself and many citizens of this town, would strongly disagree.

Wouldn't it be more appropriate to say lack of trained forces was the cause of Tipton's preventable death by asphyxiation?

Something is seriously wrong here. Hasn't our city learned its lesson from the firefighters who stole narcotics, replaced them with water and continually did this unnoticed? Someone in City Hall needs to clean up their back yard.

Katrina James, Clearwater

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[Last modified July 2, 2006, 21:07:17]