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the HERALD Peoples Forum Wednesday September Slowpitch president questions town support Sir As someone who participates in mens in Georgetown I felt that a letter explaining the support we do and do not get would be appropriate now that the season is coming to a close The Sunday morning Service Club league is a group that has been in existence for over years Besides the service clubs and some player sponsorships there has been constant unwaver ing support via sponsorships from several local merchant organizations Two years ago the Georgetown Mens Slopitch League was form ed The first year saw teams in the league and the second year there were 27 teams For next year we already have applica tions for three new mens teams nine mixed teams and there are three teams that we could not ac commodate in this years schedule All of these teams have had sponsorship from local mer chants like Colour Your World Disposal Cleaners TimeOut floadhouse MVP Sports Distributors Kinney Canada Aloha Restaurant The Copper Kettle Riverside Spa Country Lane Video The George and Dragon Royal Pizza Quarries Welders and Daves Service In short ver good participation from players and sponsors Without the participation of these sponsors their teams thereby helping finance the league we may not have ever had the opportunity to play baseball The Masonic Temple and the Elks Hall have been made available to us for use in haung our meetings and again our expression of gratitude can not be strong enough to hem Finally no league can run without a group of dedicated volunteers offering to donate large amounts time Mr Jim has run the Service Club league for some years now and every year the extent of his ef forts go unpublished but not un noticed He and assistants cannot get the proper amount of thanks that are due them The Georgetown Mens Slopitch League has an executive of five people and representatives from every team who have given huge amounts of time and effort into creating the league the rules the schedules running tournaments dances and administering the leagues affairs Without being redundant these people deserve thanks for their efforts In spite of all the time and ef fort of the volunteers and the financial support of sponsors and service clubs why is there such apathy on the part of the Town and the local papers in sup porting and publishing the efforts of over 1000 participants in these two leagues The Towns problem is that they cannot accommodate all the teams that want to play The diamonds that are being made available in the fairgrounds in Acton and in Glen Williams are marginal in quality Diamond in the fairgrounds is typlical Every player knows to position himself on the rock when playing right field and on the bare spot in left field while avoiding the gopher hole in centre The Town allows groups to use the fairgrounds for veij worthwhile projects like the fall fair and but put no restric tions on them like parking in parking lots versus the infields These diamonds have never been top dressed and the only water they see is rain water All these problems make for dangerous grounds to play when the bounce could be up down right left but definitely not predictable More than one bail player has had a snowfence post attempting to ply its way into his body Georgetowns diamonds are a disgrace in quality and quantity when compared to towns that support baseball Towns with populations per cent less than ours diamonds that have outfields good enough to run across without fear of injury from obstacles The diamond space is critical in this Town and efforts to in crease diamond space have ac tually been thwarted The GMSL was chastised last spring by the Recreation Department for tak ing on new teams citing a lack of diamonds This a short while after this same Rec depart ment reported to Council that there was so much spare time on the Town fields that they could not justify building new facilities When told that new facilities were due in 1994 the GMSL of fered to lease the old dump site on Maple from the Town and build diamonds at their own expense The Town referred the idea to the Ministry of the Environment plus every known Town depart ment knowing a minimum of two years would expire before an answer came back The Town ap parently has no property that could be used to accommodate baseball players Each facility has a minor ball league Georgetown Acton Glen Williams Hornby and minor ball leagues that are slow to organize and very protective of diamond times While the adults must submit schedules for play Harris queries education policy To the Editor As the father of a sixyearold son I shored in the anticipation and anxiety millions of parents felt when our children returned to the classroom at the beginning of September And daily reports in the local newspapers about in creasing drug use in our schools and mounting violence in the classroom only added to my ex isting concerns about the quality of education our children are receiving With these growing apprehen sions I as a parent legislator and former educator was dismayed when the NDP govern ment decided that Ontario would not participate in a national testing program In my view this decision is wrong In of the testing pro gram the government is being unfair to taxpayers parents and students Taxpayers have a right to hold educators and ad ministrators accountable for the thirteen billion tax dollars used to educate our young people We have a right to know if we are get ting value for our money Parents have a right to know if the school system is providing their children with a positive learning environment We want to ensure that our sons and daughters are gaming the skills they will need to lead prosperous and rewarding lives Our children are the future of this pro vince And our children have a right to excellence in their schooling to ensure that their real needs are met and their full potential is realized As a parent I want my con cerns addressed As a taxpayer I deserve answers Participation in the national testing program would provide us with some of these answer But the NDP government doesnt seem to want to know if our schools are performing up to scratch We deserve better I urge each and every one of you to write Bob and tell him that we want this decision reversed Mike Harris Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario by early February for play to begin early May the minor leagues are allowed to put in blanket requests covering and holding all the facilities until after their registration late May The result is minor league teams playing on diamonds that have outfields so far out of reach for these kids even steroids wont help The kids are playing twice a week plus practices to use up the excess times booked by the minor league executives Major dia mond times are often used for minor league games while adult teams are shunted off to play behind Park School There are sufficient school diamonds to ac commodate all the minor league practice time and sufficient ma jor diamonds to allow everyone minor and adult to play once a week The inequity in diamond allocation currently leans towards minor ball Who does the Town think is paying taxes the kids or the adults This is probably the wrong forum for bashing the efforts of the local papers but with this many men and women involved in one sport in two leagues why are the local papers not reporting more than word game- sum- maries and the occasional stan ding list Why are the sponsors not saying to you I want my advertising dollar to include some coverage of my sponsored teams I compare the coverage of adult baseball to your coverage of kids sports and I wonder who pays for the papers and who buys the goods being advertised in your paper The battle with the Town and there cannot be another term used over diamond time could use some supporters These sup porters will not appear without the public being made aware I ask that you seriously look at the plight of the baseball playing public in Georgetown and make the situation known especially in this an election year Maybe one of the candidates will take up the cause and win himself a few thou sand votes They would have mine There were several teams from Georgetown that went to the On tario Provincial playoffs for This says there are some truly fine ballplayers in town Is this not something worth nuturing and publicizing Should the Town not be proud of these ac complishments Are we going to wait until we have a winning Raider season before we stand up and cheer for someone Thank you for giving me this opportunity to have my say Peter Wanner President Georgetown Mens League Editors Note Given limited coverage facilities we rely on those people Involved with various leagues to provide us with information on games and upcoming special events Your league did not provide us with this Information YOU COULD W I and the 1 presents The Doors Riding On The Storm The Sixties fit Now with John 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