RE: Pioneer Park

Dear Editor

On Aug. 31, I attended the presentation of the revised plan for Pioneer Park. The plan calls for a new ball field that is not large enough for adult or teenagers to play baseball or softball. The coaches and ball players in attendance all agreed that the city does not need another Little League field. We need fields for older kids and adults. Also the plans for boat trailer parking are for two rows of back-out-while-turning parking. It looks like a design for a Publix parking lot. Boat trailer parking should be drive-thru parking. I know two boaters who have had their trucks hit while parked there. There is not enough land to put proper boat parking, and even the small Little League field that we don’t need. Now the FDOT has offered a $400,000 grant to put an 8 ft. wide walkway in so they are going to put it between the boat parking and the proposed ball field and start it within 90 days.

A lovely and wise lady [Amie Kay Tanner] told us that Pioneer Park was the city’s first park. Her father helped build it in 1947. They had live oaks and picnic tables and people had family reunions there. I think the smartest plan would be to forget about the ball field. We don’t need it. Quickly redesign the plan with the new walkway moved over so that there will be room for drive-thru boat parking, and plant trees and put some picnic tables where the ball field would go. Remember that this is a waterfront park.

A few years ago, we had three good ball fields with lighting there, but the city bulldozed them and put in a softball field and a small practice field. The three fields were grandfathered in. We could not build them again because now we are required to have more green space and retention ponds. We don’t even have space now for a paved parking lot. The new plan calls for car parking on the grass of the green space. We wasted millions of dollars on this park a few years ago, let’s do it right this time.

Robert Lloyd

Deerfield Beach