THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 28, 1996 TAG: 9607260166
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 67 lines
Looking for some help
In regard to Maryanne Florella's letter on July 7, I am also a parent and a volunteer at Olive Branch Little League. I help manage concessions and I am also the treasurer. A treasurer's report is given at every board meeting, along with a general meeting with a breakdown of all income and expenses.
Now Maryanne is probably not aware of this since she has not attended any of our meetings. An annual report is also done at the end of the year listing all monies that came through the league and all monies dispensed. The books are also audited by a three-audit committee before this report is given.
The barbecue dinner was never a fund-raiser. I thought it was something that benefited working parents and their children, so they would not have to rush to the field on opening night hungry. Gee, maybe Maryanne didn't appreciate a good meal at a reasonable price.
In regard to a cash register, we are a Little League and not a grocery store. But if you could volunteer your time and try to have a cash register donated, we would be honored to make you the head cashier. You could operate it Monday through Friday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. and all day Saturday, and this way maybe some of us with our overblown egos could take a break and watch our children play a ball game for a change.
Daisy Hall
Mohican Drive
July 12, 1996
Come to Fountain Park
In response to Mr. Steen's letter to the editor accusing the Port Norfolk Civic League of self-serving actions bordering on racism, I would like to respond by inviting Mr. Steen and anyone else who shares his simplistic, sanctimonious assessment of our ``solution,'' to spend an afternoon in Fountain Park.
How refreshing that Mr. Steen has taken such an active interest in his neighborhood's civic league to warrant such denunciation. Had he taken a stroll through our park just a year ago I'm afraid his ``theater for biracial comrade'' would more realistically have been a playhouse for contraband consumption.
The removal of a basketball rim (to a park just two blocks away for those concerned with those damnable health benefits and training ground for a major sport) was but one step in reclaiming a park meant for the enjoyment of all residents - not merely the trash-talking group of toughs who regularly drank beer and used drugs in public.
The Port Norfolk Civic League, in concert with local law enforcement began a systematic revitalization of the park. It stands today as a testament of one neighborhood's intolerance of drug dealing and criminal behavior.
The removal of two basketball rims is not in itself a racist act, in spite of Mr. Steen's veiled implications. The assumption, however, is that its effect will be felt by one segment of the population more than another.
I'm not naive enough to assume that erecting play equipment and planting flowers is the solution to our neighborhood's crime trouble, but it is a powerful beginning resulting in curbed traffic problems, less late-night noise and decreasing ``concomitant vandalism,'' which was once attributable to our park.
I am also not naive enough to think that altering street corners or eliminating pay phones, as the witty correspondence suggests, will eliminate my neighborhood's woes.
There was, however, a degree of accuracy to his letter. Perhaps Mrs. Reagan hasn't taken residence on Broad Street, sir, but her message of ``Just Say No!'' is one that we as concerned neighbors have taken to the drug dealers and criminals who no more claim our park as theirs.
David H. Coale
Maryland Avenue
July 15, 1996 by CNB