May 15, 2008
Uncommon Sense
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Déjà vu all over again, again
They say short-term memory is the first thing to go. But worse than not being able to remember is having the nagging feeling that you do remember something, but not being sure that what you are remembering is correct. For instance, there’s this week’s headline, to which I added a second “again” because I vaguely recall having used that Yogi Berra quote as a headline once before. And then there’s the opening line, “They say short-term memory is the first thing to go.” I’m pretty sure I may have used that before, but it’s possible I’m just experiencing — what do they call it?
Oh yeah ... “déjà vu.”
Annoying as it may be, I’m certain many readers are experiencing the same vague
sense of having heard something before. I refer, of course, to last week’s story, “Legacy money for fields?” which now appears on The Ledger Web site under the headings “AP Farm Fields could cost taxpayers nothing” and “Officials seek Legacy money.” Allow me to reassure you all: You have not lost your minds. This story really has come full circle.
The article disclosed that “the town, county and school district jointly announced the possibility of using Westchester County Legacy funds, which are earmarked for outdoor athletics projects like the fields, to finance the construction of one rectangular field and one softball field on the [AP Farm Fields] property, at a cost of roughly $2 million.” The story continued:
“It’s a classic case of intermunicipal cooperation,” said county Legislator Peter Harckham, 2nd District, who first approached the schools with the idea. “It’s a win-win. You’ve got a number of people who can take advantage of this, and it’s not going to directly impact the Katonah-Lewisboro School District taxpayers.”
There’s a reason this sounds familiar. On October 27, 2005, I gushed that, by having the county use Legacy Program money to buy the then-Andes property, build two ball fields on it and turn it over to the town, which would share its use with the schools, “the Nordgren administration has taken what was once an embarrassing defeat for the Katonah-Lewisboro School District and turned it into a win-win-win situation.” Yes, that’s one more “win” than Mr. Harckham used. But I enumerated them:
• The school district gets a new artificial turf soccer/lacrosse field and a new softball field, at no cost to the school budget.
• The town gets its first newly acquired land for playing fields in 20 years, at a time when most local sports backers had given up hope of ever seeing another new field.
• The town and the school district finally have an actual joint-use facility, the kind of cooperation often spoken of over the years but never before seen.
If I am not publicly jumping for joy right now, it is only because I recall only too well what my exuberance got me last time. Residents of Cross River came to a Town Board meeting looking for Town Supervisor Jim Nordgren’s blood, and then proceeded to get it from him at the polls. Fears were raised of unknown requirements in any agreement with the county. An inflammatory anonymous campaign letter suggested that the agreement would result in unsavory types from southern Westchester invading our town and doing who-knows-what to our daughters. The new Republican administration under Town Supervisor Edward Mahoney then allowed the Andes idea to die a slow, agonizing death, instead focusing on putting athletic fields on a chunk of land on Route 22 — even attempting to get hold of Legacy funds for that site. (Oddly, not a single voice was raised to suggest that the invaders from the south would then have even easier access, since the I-684 exit was directly adjacent.)
In the fall of 2006, the Republican administration finally held a public forum on athletic fields. It was, we were told, intended to allow the public to make an informed decision, not to influence anybody. It featured detailed, professionally drawn schematics of the proposed fields at Route 22, and crudely done paper cutouts of the Andes property allegedly showing that there was simply no way to fit fields there.
But that’s all in the dim past. Now, thanks to Adam Rose, the Andes property is AP Farm and has been cleared, ready for donation; thanks to Mr. Harckham, the school district will not have to figure out where to come up with the money to construct new fields; and thanks to what Mr. Harckham calls a “wonderfully collaborative process,” we may finally be ready to make believe these last two and a half years never happened. They should be easy to forget.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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