Speaking up for park district staff

During the past few weeks, a number of public comments have been made about the Glen Ellyn Park District and its current board.

Beginning last fall, the park district embarked on $1.4 million renovation of Village Green Park, which serves at the main location for the Glen Ellyn Youth Baseball Association, of which I am a member.

On March 21, Glen Ellyn Baseball conducted its first Fields Day at Village Green, which was attended by approximately 40 managers from the program. This event was not made necessary by any failing on the part of the park district. To the contrary, the Fields Day had been planned for over a year and was intended to be a cooperative effort between the park district and Glen Ellyn Baseball to work together to remedy the damage done to the fields by our typically harsh winter.

On that Saturday, three park staff members came out to the fields at sunrise to set up for the event and then, not only provided those in attendance with valuable information with respect to field maintenance, but also worked very hard on the fields themselves.

Having worked with the staff of the park district for more than 10 years in connection with both baseball and soccer, I was not surprised by either the efforts of those gentlemen or the willingness of the park district to help the baseball program to be the best that it can be.

This event was simply another example of the commitment that the park district has to providing residents with the best facilities possible, and I would like to publicly thank them for their efforts.

Tom Long

Glen Ellyn