Local Look Awesometown Editorials

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Awesometown

on Dec. 1, 2007

Apparently it's not just the Avon Park skate park that is in a state of disrepair. An independent company was brought in to grade the condition of the local public parks in Avon Park and it seems the results were not good, one soccer field is close to being closed down due to safety concerns, many other parks need repairs but are still able to operate.

I find it sad that people who run these cities have no problem throwing money around, yet never seem to want to spend money on the local children… and are somehow comfortable with the fact that they are letting the kids play on run down, unsafe fields, parks, playgrounds, etc.

One problem is that the high elderly population in this area is not from around here, their grandchildren are all up north somewhere and they could care about voting to build something for the kids or putting aside the money to properly maintain the equipment that has already been built. They would rather have new shuffleboard courts and a couple more golf courses… this town needs to stop catering to the snowbirds. In 10 years their will be almost no snowbirds left. The sad fact is the generation of people who will retire to Florida is coming to a close, the vacationers who came to Florida before Disney took over or men who did their military service/training in Florida. Most of these people are retiring to Florida as we speak… what happens when they are gone? Will people continue to come here because everyone else used to? Maybe for a little while, but that soon will die off. Do you think the average Disney vacationer is thinking about retiring to Florida? Florida needs to get out of the mindset of catering to the retirees because if they don't they are going to find themselves in a mess.

I know I got a little off topic…

Anyways.

So we are left with children, playing in potentially unsafe conditions, and not too many people seem to care.

Another story I wanted to tie in with the comic but decided not to at the last minute because the issue had not come up in the paper yet (but is in the works) is the lack of medical personal and trainers at school and league sporting events. This is another huge danger, and it become even more dangerous when you are allowing the kids to play on unsafe fields as well.

For more info on this story, click here.