Mixville FINALLY on the agenda
In case you hadn't noticed, despite numerous promises (from a number of people) to improve Mixville... other than addressing the geese, the park has continued to be largely ignored by Cheshire's Political Class. Thankfully though, the Council changed a wee bit a few months ago. So if you read this email from Town Hall, you'll be able to see that things may change:
Sheldon Dill would like to have an Ordinance Review Committee meeting for consideration and recommendation on the Mixville fees 2-tiered proposal. In addition, since the full Council doesn’t meet until July 14th, and it would therefore be five weeks before any fees (if approved) could go into effect, Chairman Hall has agreed to hold a joint Special Council Meeting with this ORC meeting to enable Council to act on these fees as soon as possible. Could you please let us know your availability on Thursday, June 18th at 7:30 p.m. and Monday, June 22nd at 7:30 p.m.? We will confirm the meeting date as soon as we hear back from everyone. Thank you!
As you can see, any improvements that happen at Mixville should be credited to Sheldon Dill. IMO, any other explanations are simply damage control for the continued neglect (see here and here) of the park by Cheshire's Political Class... of which Sheldon is not a member.
Tim White
21 comments:
I went to Mixville Park yesterday (Sunday)for the first time, 3:45 to 5:00 pm. There was a speedtrap on Notch Road when I came in. There was also a Public Works truck by the gate to the Pavillion. I went with my 3 year old. There was a graduation party going on in the Pavillion and another party in the red shed structure. No loud music, but I could see the potential for some of the behavior described in other posts.
My first impression of the park was what a dump with so much potential. I would love to take my kids there; however the place was flooded; the ball field and the play ground.
However I would not pay a membership fee or a parking fee to go there at this point. It seems the fee structure is to discourage use (unless I am missing the discussions on improving the park).
what potential? what was wrong that could have gotten worse?
Every field in town was flooded on Sunday due to the week of rain we just had.
When I first moved to Cheshire, Mixville Park was the weekend retreat. We always went swimming there and had a great time. Since the town pool opened I have the impression that the town doesn't want to publicize Mixville (or maintain it for that matter). There is no excuse for letting out-of-towners destroy it further. If the only way to accomplish this for a fee then I am all for it. Even if we now have a town pool there is no excuse for letting the park fall into such disrepair.
I went to the park on Saturday and again on Sunday salso went to Mixville twice.
I was there at 12:00 noon on Sunday at 12:00 noon. At this time there were 8 people in the park, six in the small pavillion and 2 in the larger one. I talked with the the Park & Rec person at the inner gate, who told me that there would be more people at around 2:30I saw only two piece of trash as I walked around the pond to the pavilion. While there, two people arrrived on motor bikes and roared up the ski slope, churning up grass and mud as they raced up the slope at full speed. I guess they exited at the top onto the rail line. These were definitely locals and no fee woould prevent their entry or the damage they caused.
As for the first poster, he could see potential for bad behavior, huh? To allay any potential bad behavior then the pavillions should be removed and nobody should be allowed to have a party there.
Their other criticism was " what a dump". All I can say is that some people find fault with everything, are never satisfied, and drain everyone else's enthusiam. The park is just beautiful and it is well kept. I don't know why some puddles should be such a surprise after it's been raining for days, but one should realise that it doesn't always rain.
I returned at 2:30 and found about 10 people outside of the area of the two pavillions. The people in the pavillions were like any other groups as far as noise and activity levels were. One was having a graduation party and I don't know what the group was celebrating.
Some people have been verbally attacking park user as if they were freeloading on the taxpayers. I think they pay $125 for the large pavillion and $75 for the smaller one. On this day, if the two pavillions were not rented, you could call the park empty.
So, before anyone votes on placing a fee on this park, they must go to the park themselves, instead of listening to individual who provide biased inflamnatory reports or whose general views vary from those of most people.
Tim, thanks for responding the the needs of Mixville residents. Even though the park itself is in Laura DeCaprio's district, she's shown little if any concern. Guess she's too "busy", so we appreciate your leadership.
I was referring to the fact that Ms. DeCaprio has ignored Mixville for THE LAST TWO YEARS.
Her recent arrival and your potty mouthed name-calling are poor defenses for her mediocre service for the whole time she's been in.
4:50 yeah, clean up your act
I would hope that the town council not rely on a few very vocal people to tell them about the conditions of Mixville.
1. One person says it's a dump and that there are puddles on the ball field and playscape. Duh, well, when it rains, puddles do form.
It is not a dump. It is well maintained and a great place to have a quiet relaxing time outside. As for the ball field being wet, it is not always wet.
The ball field may be used by a summer camp, but other than that reason, there are so many other ballfields in town that one could question why a ballfield is even needed here.
Puddles at the playscape are not restricted to Mixville. There were puddles at Bartlems and Doolittle school when it rained. who know what other parks have puddles.
2. Supposedly, hordes of out-of-towners are using the park and leaving trash all over.
I wouldn't call people who rent the pavillions free-loaders, they pay $75 for the smaller pavillion and $125 for the larger one.
As far as trash is concerned, both residents and people from out of town could pay for the pavillion with a credit card, two slips would could be made, one for the rental and a second one could be charged $100 if they left any trash within 100, yards of the pavillion, and to pay for any damaged property.
For other people using the park, a significant entry sign should state that there is a fine for littering and it should be enforce.
Also, all recreational vehicles should be prohibited and owners severely fined.
We know that residents done always take care of town property, remember we are being asked pay for a new high school locker room to replace the one that has been trashed over the year.
3. Out-of-towners take control of the pavillions.
The one or two people who made this observation either didn't know that they had paid for the use. The way it works, is that they or anyone else has to pay for a group using it. If they haven't paid, the Park and Red employee currently does not allow them past the inner gate.
4. The town doesn't take care of it. From what I have seen the town does a great job. I think they could however make the ski slope into a wildlife area by mowing it twice, once in the spring and fall. This might not work out as it might contribute to erosion, just an idea.
5. It should be restored to it's former condition.
Except for the quality of the swimming, it is as good as it ever was. As far restoring the swimming, it might not be easy or cheap. I understand that it would require extensive dredging and the pond is dependent on what happens upstream.
6. There should be a charge for using the park.
A charge would have a chilling effect on usage and would in effect turn this wonderful park into a neighborhood park. The residents already pay enough taxes without adding another nuisance tax.
There are many people in town that don't go to Bartlem or the other parks because they are basically sports parks. Mixville allows the a park where they can picnic, fish, bird watch or simple lay out in the sun and enjoy the fresh air in a quiet park. Mixville is a park with a terrific environment.
In summary, one should look at Mixville's as providing unique recreational experience that no other town park has, and not try to make it another sports park. Maybe, some rules have to be tweaked, review if the rule resulted in the desired outcome and if not tweak it again.
Another idea is to form a group of volunteers to plant some flowers, do some painting, fixing or other things that Park and Rec feels would be beneficial. Charging a fee may be simple, but simple solutions many times only restrict peoples freedom and we have already lost enough.
What would Ron Paul do? Would he put it on the ballot and let the people decide?
"Give Laura a break a******, she just had a kid. If she were to put the town business ahead of a newborn, I would be the first to call DCF."
You sound like a class act yourself.
Obviously family comes first, but when you can no longer represent the people who voted you into office, then you should step down from that position so somebody who does care about their constituents can take over.
She has done nothing for Mixville, even before she became pregnant, so that is not an excuse.
"The ball field may be used by a summer camp, but other than that reason, there are so many other ballfields in town that one could question why a ballfield is even needed here."
Obviously you have no kids involved in CYB/CYS.
We need more, well maintained fields. Very difficult to find fields to use during the season.
12:45- the town leased the prison land to CYB- build your own ball park....CYB has taken over all the town parks.....how about limiting the amount of participants and playing baseball when it should be played ony- the spring.
Breachway;
Obviously, you don't get involved in CYB/CYS or you would know the majority of the baseball games being played are in the spring. By the way, why should it only be in the spring??
The town did lease the land to CYB, but it is up to CYB to raise the money (at least $1 Million) to build the fields. Not a good time to fund raise in this economy.
To limit the number of participants is not fair to the residents of this town. How do you choose who doesn't play? That should not be the option. CYB actually paid Wallingford the last few years to use their field, but Wallingford stopped that since they needed the field for their own residents.
CYB has not taken over the parks, but they are using them, along with the high school, the mens league, the lacrosse teams.
CYB also takes better care of the fields then the town does. Go look at a field in March before the CYB season starts, they are in horrendous shape.
Breachway---don't put this on CYB unless you know the facts! Learn them before you write.
That ball field at mixville was built on a swamp. It will never be anything but a swamp. When mixville was dredged in the early 70s that field was part of the pond. If you go back in the 40's and 50's, the beach was on the other side of the pond. There was also a raft and swim lessons by the red cross.
I was at the park last night and it was reassuring to see some guys from the fire dept practicing with their off road vehicle (I dont know what it is). Maybe they are expecting the park to be crowded again. They were courtious to those of us walking the grounds. Seeing some of the places they can go makes me curious to venture off the beaten trail knowing that help is available.
There are some people in the immediate area who are interested in increasing the sale price of their house.
Some people fix up their house and make a number of changes to make it more appealing, they call this activity Staging and there are actual businesses that you can hire to help you do the Staging.
I have the feeling that the intensity of the negativity of some peoples outpourings are designed to have the town make changes to the park as part of there Staging efforts. Charging for park usage would reduce attendance to very low numbers of people using the park and it would in effect convert this park from a town park to a neighborhood park and that would increase the property values of the neighborhood.
I think that some people would be happy to see both out-of-towners and Cheshire residents not use their park.
There has always been a fee to use Mixville up until the pool was built. There's no reason it should be an issue to reinstate the fee. People paid for years and the park was packed with town residents. Make it an enjoyable place to be and I would have no problem paying to use the park. Would the town consider eliminating the fee to use the pool? I don't think so.
how about the person drove into the back pond past friday,there should definitely a charge for using the park. by the way, it was a hummer that drove in the pond,
is that suppose to be breaking news? we knew on last friday it was a hummer.
Obviously you have no kids involved in CYB/CYS.
We need more, well maintained fields. Very difficult to find fields to use during the season.
We have too many ball fields. I'm sorry you can't find a ball field at the time you want. Maybe you should consider going at a different time.
I think there are too many people in Cheshire that are spoiled. They have to have professional grade ball fields, for their kids who don't really care. Are these kids playing pro ball? Maybe we should have a fee play ball?
"Maybe we should have a fee play ball?"
Guess what genius, we do pay a fee. Plus the CYB/CYS take care of the fields and keep them in good condition. The town won't do it.
Tell me genius, how many is too many ball fields?
So, are you suggesting we pull the kids out of school and get the VOLUNTEER coaches to leave work early so we can practice in the afternoon? Do you realize that we only have 2 good hours on average of daylight in order to use these fields if we start at 5:30?
You sound like an angry person who has no kids so you could care less about ball fields and parks in this town.
Guess what? There are a lot of kids in this town whose parents pay a good amount of taxes plus extra fees to use these ballfields.
Would you rather have the developers take over the parks and build more homes?
And to say that we want "professional grade ballfields" is so unfair. Have you gone to Bartlem and looked at those fields with the trenched dug through the outfield?
The only reason the infields are in good shape is because of the CYB, otherwise all the fields would be overgrown eyesores.
Learn a little about what the people who use and mantain these fields before you condemn them.
People like you would rather have nohing going on in town. I myself like to see the kids playing ball, its better then walking the streets.
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