Community Corner

Retired Parks Head: Parks Suffer as City Prioritizes School Field Upgrades

The former superintendent of Middletown parks balks at the news that Mayor Drew wants to spend $75K in taxpayer dollars on a consultant.

To the Editor:

There was an article in the Hartford Courant on July 10, regarding Middletown’s Common Council approval of hiring a consultant for $75,000 to tell the mayor and Common Council what and how to make improvements to “city parks and recreation facilities.” 

This is an area which is near and dear to me, as I was parks superintendent for the city of Middletown for 30 of my 41 plus years working in the Parks & Recreation department. A couple of pertinent job duties for the parks division entailed supervisory aspects, preparation of fiscal and capitol budgets, preparing specifications for bidding purposes, and overseeing departmental projects.

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The article written by Shawn Beals continues: “The funding will pay for a study, design and permitting for any work that needs to be done to update recreational facilities and parks at Woodrow Wilson Middle School, Pat Kidney Field and Middletown High School.” 

Are you serious? They have to spend $75,000 for a consultant to tell them what is wrong with the three sites listed in the article! By the way, two of them are Middletown Board of Education facilities and citizenry use is not allowed — and the other, Pat Kidney Field, is vastly used by the Board of Education. 

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The only thing stated correctly in the article is a comment made by Councilman Thomas Serra, "Except for our soccer fields we haven't touched our parks in 20 years…” The councilman speaks from first-hand knowledge as he championed the cause for the city to award Middletown Youth Soccer (a private organization), what will end up being millions of taxpayer dollars for contract construction subsidies and perpetual maintenance upkeep of their fields for years to come.

After many years of informing the Parks & Recreation Commission, council members and mayors that our parks infrastructure was deteriorating and broken due to lack of budgetary funding, the city is now acting. 

Councilman Serra and Mayor Dan Drew are past commissioners of the Parks & Recreation Commission. Councilman Todd Berch and Phil Pessina are current commissioners. During that 20 years of neglect spoke about by Councilman Serra, it is valid to point out that he served as mayor. 

Several years ago, I was asked by the commission to supply them and the Common Council with detailed information of which facilities and what construction/renovations were needed. The cost tallied almost $25,000,000. That’s a lot of neglect!

Most towns understand the importance of both parks and recreation. They know it is more than soccer and little league fields. It’s about quality of life for all ages in a community and being able to partake in whatever activity you desire, and not just be a spectator.

Most, if not all, of the council members, including the mayor and his cabinet, have no idea what the parks department’s responsibilities to the community really encompass, or where some of our parks are even located. That is one of the main reasons the parks infrastructure system has been allowed to be thrown aside for so long during the budgetary process.

I remember then Mayor Maria Holzberg wanting to close many parks and athletic fields down: “Parks and recreation are non-essential!” Was she right?

My opinion is that for political and personal reasons, the parks division was set up to purposely fail. I’ve said it at prior public meetings and in newsletters that once departments are on the verge of reorganizing, whatever money is needed to succeed will become available. This is just round one.

If I sound bitter, I may be. When I read the mayor thinks it’s a good idea to put lights on the Arrigoni Bridge at a cost of over $750,000 taxpayer dollars, and we don’t even own it, yeah, I might get bitter. I think of all the good we could do with that money in our parks.

Perhaps council members never understood that my passion for the parks department and development came from a deep-rooted commitment to the community in which I was raised. There was only one reason to be outspoken — and it was to provide the citizenry

with great public spaces to enjoy the outdoors. I left city employment with the regret that the dreams, goals and visions for the department never came to fruition. 

Even if the reason for the funding and attention to our natural landscapes is ultimately for all the wrong reasons, I’m glad that the facilities might be getting the attention that they deserve.

John Milardo, Middletown

Milardo retired last year as longtime supervisor of Middletown Parks and Recreation.


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