Letters to the Editor

To the editor:

There have been many people expressing their opinions about the issues surrounding the 20-year rugby field lease in Bander Park by the city of Sunset Hills.

I believe most are missing the real issue. The real issue is not traffic, lighting, noise, alcohol or youth development. The real issue is the lightning speed of the behind-doors deal and the imperially decreed lease. All done before the smoke even had a chance to rise, much less settle, from the gift of the land.

This can best be described as “pulling a fast one.”

The wonderful gift of 122 acres of contiguous open space in Sunset Hills will never happen again. Now it is gone for a generation.

The residents of Sunset Hills are under no obligation to provide special-interest groups with places to use for their niche activities. The rugby club could have and should have purchased private land.

Now the Sunset Hills residents have sacrificed their open space to a special interest group for 20 years. The gift of this park to the citizens of Sunset Hills was a very special event in city history. All planning should have involved the citizenry. This was not like signing a contract to put a new roof on a city maintenance garage or some other routine government activity.

No government action will please all the citizens. However, this type of an issue with profound and long-lasting effects should have been handled much differently.

The citizens had no input into the process. That is the real issue.

Cliff Ringis
Sunset Hills