Supervisors’ Vote on Park

Re “County Turns Park Over to the City,” April 19.

The issue here is not children or soccer. The issue is money.

In the real world, someone has to pay for the upkeep of the park. The county and Oxnard College have been trying for two years to get the city to sign a cooperation agreement to develop College Park. The county and the college proposed ball fields, a swimming pool and a playground. In their plan revenue would be raised through adult-related golf activities.

The college wanted this plan so badly that it was willing to donate an additional 15 acres to the park. Golfing activities would be very low-impact on South Oxnard because the adults who would pay to use the facilities would come singly or in small groups.

When they voted last week, the supervisors were well-aware of what is now going to happen to the property. The revenue producer will not be golf; it will be adult baseball or soccer.

Adult baseball would come in the form of Big League Dreams, a company that charges everyone--even children--to use the facility and serves alcoholic beverages. Adult soccer would come in the form of Pueblo or other soccer promoters that draw crowds from throughout Southern California to compete, maybe as often as daily, on perhaps 11 fields that the public would be prohibited from using.

Whichever idea is chosen will cause heavy impact on the quiet neighborhoods of South Oxnard.

I for one am sorry that this will happen. I was hoping for a neighborhood park similar to what I knew as a child--a place where children could play freely whenever they wanted to.

When the crowds of adults come, and they will, I hope everyone remembers who caused this to happen, the Oxnard City Council and the Board of Supervisors, with the sole exception of Supervisor Frank Schillo.

LOIS JONES

Oxnard