Dear Councilors and Mayor
If we are going to add another activity to LP we need to work with long term clubs with proven track records in Burlington.
Btown dg club has NO track record anywhere. Except for this one disaster at 18 holes of disc golf. They were formed shortly before they went before parks and rec commissions. They formed a non profit, only because they were advised to do this by parks and rec. They are barely a year old, now!
They had but 9 members when they went before Parks Commissioners in 2008.
We should not deal with btowndg club anymore. They are strongly affiliated with a political group called Democracy for American as 4 of the 9 principal
members in 2008 work for and belong to DFA. And the only way they were going to get money was through selling advertising and paste it onto their baskets that were putting into Leddy Park.
Burlington Garden Club was just recognized by the Mayor for its 75 years of work here, and the month of June is Burlington Garden Club month.
And guess what, Burlington Garden Club is very interested in working with us in Leddy Park. They can teach, demonstrate, execute, and help maintain shade gardens, sitting area, water gardens, flowering trees edging the woodland areas, selecting new trees to plant, get access to the Horticulture Farm that is part of UVm and is brimming full with trees that are not in LP that need thinning...... We can really have a beautiful park with their help. And they have maintained the gardens in front of city hall, and in many many many other locations for years....And can select plants from their own gardens to contribute.... And they will bring in 100's of active members and people who walk in Leddy Park and elsewhere to be part of this activity.
Why disc golf, anymore? Why not have a activity that is user friendly to Leddy Park and all of its users. They can help us mitigate the disturbed areas. Having a master plan will help to guide all of us in being successful. Several towns have "arboretums" that are travel destination points, as well as educational. And this will all help to bring in more money into Burlington and into Parks and Rec.
Isn't this a better win win than trying yet once again to squeeze in disc golf in an area that does not want disc golf? I even have softball coaches who play disc golf saying NO to disc golf in Leddy Park. "It will really mess up our softball games," one told me.
Thank you
Carolyn Bates
May 31, 2009
