gr8d847f8,

EXCELLENT point!

If he had demonstrated even an ounce of grace this whole situation and controversy would have been avoided. Clearly conflict resolution is not his strong suit.

It is a shame because now the Park District just ends up looking petty and miserly!

Something is always fundamentally wrong when any form of government is at odds with the citizens and the elected, appointed, and hired staff of the Park District have been at odds with citizens for way too long on way too many issues.

Don't hold your breath waiting for the Park District to solve this rationally.

It has not had much grace for a decade.

It was reported that most of the kids wanting to play pick-up games of baseball were college students who were home for the summer. Most students are back at school by now and this issue probably won't rekindle until next summer.

That gives our Naperville Park District Board about 11 months to get it's act together and come up with a workable solution that is fair to all. Hopefully our Park Board will take the high road and demonstrate some real class and plenty of it along with some community spirit and compassion. Fact is our Park Board should be setting park district policy and giving the hired Director some clear direction and guidance when these situations arise.

We should all be proud these young people want to do something positive and wholesome like playing sports when there are so many bad alternatives. In many communities young people in this age group are destroying and vandalizing and spreading graffiti all over public parks. All these young people want to do is use park district facilities for their intended purpose not cause trouble or mischief or worse and all our director can do is tell them NO? One has to wonder about the obvious disconnect between between this former police officer and all of the thousands of other police officers that are out there working their butts off trying to keep young people involved with wholesome activities.

These park district facilities are supposed to be here for all residents to use and enjoy. Reasonable people understand that some park facilities need to be reserved on certain days and times. However, these facilities are still public property and should be available to the general public at other times. Clearly this aspect of district policy is lacking and need to be addressed by our park board so that the right of the public to have free and clear access is not restricted due to mistakes or misinterpretations or misapplication of district policy by paid park district employees.

This isn't the first time in recent history that paid Park District employees have demonstrated that they are out of touch with the needs and wants of the residents and taxpayers they are hired to serve. Has anyone forgotten the fiasco with them harassing nursing mothers just a few years ago? If the Director doesn't have any better ability to build a positive relationship with all users and all age groups who are using park district facilities then he most likely isn't the best person to be doing this job on behalf of the citizens of Naperville.

The Director and Park Board best not forget that these young people represent the future of our city. Many of them already have the right to vote and are probably eager to exercise that option come next election. The Park Board would be well advise not to underestimate the ability of young people to network and vote as a block on issues important to them. And these young people all have many, many friends, neighbors, and family members who support them on this issue and who will also exercise their right to vote if it comes to that. It would be a huge political mistake to underestimate these young people.

In a few years these young people will be done with school, working, paying taxes, married, raising their families, etc. any they won't soon forget if they get treated badly and will likely hold a long memory of this if the Board fails to rise to the challenge and simply do what is right and good.

C'mon, now. Kids have been playing pick up games in parks for years. It seems like harmless fun and they really are just using the parks that taxpayers provide. They are not asking for the lights to be put on for them, merely using the lights that are left burning on vacant fields. Maybe the Park District should take a look at leaving lights burning so long if they want to cut expenses.

I'd rather see college kids playing summer ball than the shooters at Sportsman's Club polluting the air with noise and taking advantage by using taxpayers land for their private club. Lots of night lights/air conditioning, heating, etc. being used for very few people who may or may not choose to show up to shoot a few rounds.

The embarassing legacy of our dysfunctional Park District continues on!

The fields are there, and the lights are supposed to be on until a posted time (11pm?). Turning them off because someone is using them is petty on the part of teh Park District and it's leadership.

I understand that IF the users want the time guaranteed (ie reserved), or IF they want the lights past the posted time, they should pay.

McGury, Schutes, the Park Board, et.al. should all be ashamed of their stance on this!

Of course, these are the same people who razed the land at NIKE park regardless of the City's codes and ordinances.

After all, as these same individuals told us many times ------- Naperville is all out giant formal fields for soccer, etc. and not about neighborhood use.

I highly doubt anyone is prepping the fields for play after 7 pm. They are doing that earlier in the day for the evening games that re played under the lights. Once those games are done, the fields should be available for open play until dark or the lights are out.

If the fields are off limits for non-league users, simply post it and chase them off. But when fields are prepped for league play, and then practice play comes and ruins the game conditions, that is wrong, no matter how you slice it.

One seems to forget that when this land was left to the park district
It was to be use for children to play freely on. No
building were ever to be put on this land. The Lady that
left this land to the Park District must be rolling in her
grave. When did we get so money hungry in this town.
Naperville use to be such a nice place to live.

Letting a group of kids use the field for a pick up game when
no one else is on it may save drug use in the future. I already
pay taxes on these parks and I say let the Kids use them

Kid friendly Naperville, My foot!

citizen has it correct. If no one has reserved the field, then the lights should not be on. If no one has reserved the field, then the field should be available for "pick up" games. The park district is paid for by every citizen owning a home in Naperville and withing the park district boundaries, so all facilities should be available for use to anyone when they are not reserved.

Lights should be turned off unless someone pays for the field. Anyone should be able to use the field unless it's reserved by a paying group. Only paying groups should get lights.

After reading the original article, it seems that the group is upset because they can't play on the lighted fields behind Neuqua for free. It also seems like they are a regular group which plays on a regular basis, although the individual players may vary from time-to-time.

Lighted fields are not free. Someone has to pay for that elecricity, the field maintenance, and the field striping. Leagues are charged fees for the use of these fields, and that seems to work for everyone. For these young adults to expect something for nothing is a sad commentary about the youth of today. Also, for someone to comment that if they can't play baseball, they'll occupy their time with drinking, drugs, and other 'ills' is an ignorant bullying tactic. The fields don't magically get seeded, watered, raked, striped, and the bathrooms aren't magically cleaned. Come on, boys, grow up!

Park District workers are government, union workers who with the exception maybe of the park police pretty much all work 9-5. I would strongly doubt that any paid maintenance employees are on duty to stripe playing fields that late at night... it just wouldn't make good economic sense to do it that way.

I thought I read that the P.D. didn't like these guys using the fields because sometimes these guys show up to play after the P.D. stripes the fields for the "paid" team, and these guys mess up the stripes.

If they dont want them to play, turn off the lights...DUH!! It will save $$$ and this is a non issue. If they leave them on, then they can play if no one is using the field.

Maybe the Park District should consult with the Forest Preserve District since Ray McGury has such a poor understanding of what constitutes fair play. If you want to reserve a field, a campsite, a pavilion, etc. with the Forest Preserve you pay a SMALL, REASONABLE fee (please note emphasis on small and resonable) and if you do it is yours when you want it provided you get the first reservation. If no one makes a reservation and you are the first one there that day to stake a claim it yours to use for NOTHING.

In the case of the high school teams they reserve use of Park District fields. In the case of organized teams they reserve use of Park District fields. If they have to pay for that privilege so be it. If the fields have untaken reservations or available capacity it should be open for residents to use on a first come, first serve basis day or night.

These are public facilities created and maintained through the tax base supported by all residents. One one hand it is a shame to see residents blocked out of much of the available time because of all of the organized teams. On the other hand residents deserve a fair shot at using facilities they helped pay for. If McGury doesn't understand that concept then maybe the Park Board needs to rethink his contract and/or sen the Board a LOUD message next time they are up for election.

Personally, I'm sick and tired of the Park District and most of their ridiculous, self-serving fees. A half dozen or more years ago I tried to do the right thing before taking a bunch of Naperville boy scouts to a local park so they could learn how to pitch a simple boy scout tent so I called to ask permission. No overnight camping mind you. Just wanted to be able to let the boys practice putting a tent up and down a couple of times. The fee for that was $100. If we wanted to have a fire to cook a couple of hot dogs or roast some marshmallows the fee for that was another $100. You read that right... our beloved Park District wanted to collect $200 from 7 boy scouts to use THEIR public park for about 3 hours! Despite hundreds if not thousands of hours of volunteer service by local boy scouts to the Park District over the last 100 years when it comes to money it is clearly an ungrateful and definitely a one way street. Needless to say we went to the Forest Preserve and got the same exact thing for FREE and most scout troops have gotten the word that the Park District IS NOT scout friendly and as a result most troops no longer organize service projects or encourage Eagle scout projects that could benefit the Park District.

Clearly "OUR" Park District has become yet another bureaucratic nightmare that isn't accountable to anyone or anything other than their own momentum. No wonder we often hear city and Park District employees refer to us as "our residents"... they really do think they own and control us!

Let them all play. Even if they don't pay it is Ok.

Why not ---------- We all pay taxes and not for only 12 years that our kids are in school. It's about time we get some of our wasted tax dollars back to the people.

If the Park District wants to take this kind of attitude, maybe would could somehow convince our over rated school system to only collect taxes from the people who use them and for only 12 years at best.

Isn't it great to live in the land of milk and honey and where the streets are paved with gold. (sound like the inside of our schools)

Let's make sure they don't play baseball and have the thrill of playing under the lights.

Maybe they then can find the thrill of drugs, drinking and other ills of those that idle hands.

Having coached a number of Park District teams, I can say that it is nice to have grass on the well kept fields and portable restrooms that are not over-flowing.

Regulating the use of the fields keeps the grass on them.

Here are some portions of the article I found interesting:

Radostits said the pickup crew takes advantage of the empty (bold mine) but lighted fields in back....The district's argument is not surprising: If you don't pay, you don't play."I feel bad," said Executive Director Ray McGury. "But if you let one team play at no cost, how fair is that to those paying to use the fields?"....
Obviously, there's a cost to running lights and maintaining fields, and that's not something he wants to pass along to taxpayers who already get hit pretty hard from the Park District. "As much as I'd like to tell them, 'Go ahead and play ball,'" he said, "it would only open a can of worms."

_________

So my question is: "If there is a cost to the taxpayers for running the lights, why are they on when the field is empty"????? According to the article these pickup games are played when the fields are not in use (But the lights are still on?).

Of course the obvious question is, "who pays if a 10 year old at the skate park gets hit with an errant foul ball hit during this unorganized pickup game on park district property?"

They should be able to use the fields during daylight hours. It costs the park district relatively nothing. If the infields need to be groomed afterward, I'm sure the guys would do it. Just like the organized youth baseball leagues save the park district from having to offer similar programs, these guys save the park district from having to offer adult baseball programs. 100 people is a lot of interest.

Now, after daylight hours, the park district should TURN OFF THE LIGHTS when they are not being used. The district shouldn't be wasting money and energy.

Let them play! If they want to reserve a specific time they can pay $100. If they want to take whatever time is leftover on the lights why not? So they get 30 minutes or an hour, I don't care. If they go during the day and there are no teams there they should be able to play all day. When a team that has scheduled the field arrives they should leave then. The teams that pay $100 are part of a league and paying for the ability to reserve the field at a certain time. If some neighborhood guys are willing to play their games with the understanding that the lights may go out at anytime or they may have to leave the field because a paying team has arrived then who cares. Our tax dollars pay for these facilities not the $100 the league teams pay. If your son or daughter is a little league or high school ball player should you pay $100 to take them to an open field so they can pitch to you or shag fly balls? I think not. And before the park district says it increases their maintenance costs let's be real. A few guys playing a pickup game certainly don't add to the maintenance of a field that hosts league play.

I think residents should be allowed to use fields that aren't being used by others, but not if it's the same group of people on a regular basis. The manner in which these kids are using the fields has the feel of an organized league. If they're going to come back week after week, they shouldn't object to having to cough up what amounts to a few bucks per player per week.