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Viewpoints

White Cliff / Baseball
By Scott Klein

 

September 13, 2006
Wednesday


I will admit that I haven't followed the White Cliff deal that close but it seems to me just at a glance that I would have to be a senior citizen, an actor, dancer or belong to the arts program to even want to go into the new place. How long have we been pushing for this place? Does the sales tax increase only help out the people who would be using this place?

My point is that I and many other people have spent a lot of cold days at ball practice with our children at Walker field in early spring and late rainy evenings. Now I'm not knocking the arts community but when was the last time you spent 10.00 to 15.00 dollars to see a ball game? When was the last time you sat outside to watch your child rehearse for an upcoming show?

Ketchikan use to be a thriving community in the baseball world, we have won our state championships and also sent teams to San Bernardino, yet we don't have an indoor facility for the kids to use in the winter or during long rainy spells.

We need to invest in something that is good for all kids and not just ones that belong to certain organizations. We need to invest in the future of not just the theatrical arena but also the sport arena and try to turn our children away from the bad influences they are faced with in our town.

I have been told that Norman Walker field was to be used as a baseball field to develop our players into competitive athletes to strive for college scholarships and fulfill dreams that some of our youth have. Now the league is forced to share in the off-season with soccer and football. What if the baseball league wanted to have a short fall season to let players play (just to play) would they be told "no"?

We have a generation of athletes coming up that we need to take care of or they are not going to hang around. We need to invest some money into an indoor pitching and hitting facility for the kids that want to be athletes.

Like I stated before I'm not knocking the theatrical people (used to be a stage hand in high school and enjoyed it) but I do believe baseball and softball deserve a place just as much, if not more then anybody.
Let's invest for all the children to keep them in the game

Scott Klein
Ketchikan, AK - USA



About: Resident of Ketchikan, 11 yrs, spent many a cold night at the ball park, and doing extra innings with my daughters.

 

On the Web:

Proposition 1 - Sales Tax Increase: For the full text of Ordinance No. 1403 click here
http://borough.ketchikan.ak.us/clerks/documents/1403.pdf

White Cliff Project
http://www.ketchikanarts.org/whitecliff

 

 

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