Letters | Open space need not have cost so dearly

While the desire to save open space is commendable, it's hard to feel sorry for Evesham's costs for upkeep of open space, especially when the township could be smarter about how it did the job ("Open spaces pinching suburbs," Aug. 12).

The 76-acre tract mentioned in the article matches the back acres of Memorial Fields, originally Barclay Farm. As a farm, those back acres were fenced, grazed, and cut and baled for hay. They were beautiful, useful and productive. The hayfields even generated cash.

Once the recreation department got the farm, the fences were torn out, the last lofted barn was torn down, garden plots were planted in the grassy riding rings, and the automatic waterers were removed. The hayfields began to be cut like soccer fields. Despite this attempt to dry them out, the fields' wetlands character remained.

If the township had been willing to play fair and share, the "never-ending mowing job" would only happen several times a year. The results would be salable, there would be cash coming in, and everybody would enjoy the benefits.

Memorial Fields turned into an ostentatious pedestal for its redesigners, who refused to acknowledge that the wetlands and restrictions left a large, flat property with good, but limited, uses. The limitations are beginning to show up.

Evesham could have saved time and made money, for the past 10 years, but the recreation department had "better" ideas. Sharing wasnt one of them.

Carolyn Marshall
Evesham