Message from Councilman Adams | 4/30/21

I have had the privilege of serving as a volunteer soccer and baseball coach for my sons in the various town leagues over the past several years. I also am an enthusiastic spectator for some of the other youth sports in town too, like flag football and wrestling. As is the case with many of us with young children, it is one of my main hobbies on weekends. These days, a Saturday with five or six different games is the norm, as daunting as it sometimes seems.    

Some of my fondest memories of my own childhood include participating in youth sports, and I see the joy and valuable teaching moments that these activities provide to my own children.  There are many life lessons that our children obtain from youth sports and extracurricular activities, more generally, well beyond the game itself.  

Besides all the challenges of teaching sports and the advantages of an active lifestyle to our kids, I have observed, first hand, the added challenge of managing our town’s limited athletic fields. For those who may be unaware, our youth sports programs are thriving, and are considered some of the best in the state.  That is a testament to those who largely volunteer their time to organize them. However, there is a severe limit in the number of available fields to serve all of these leagues.  Many users seek scarce field time, often at the same times.  Other practical limitations on our existing facilities are also something that league organizers constantly face, such as drainage issues after a rain event and the toll that year round activity takes on natural grass playing surfaces.      

Our children have had it rough enough over the past year with the far-reaching emotional, psychological, and developmental impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.  They need their extra-curricular activities now, more than ever.  Having adequate, state of the art recreational facilities plays a significant role in that dynamic.  

I am pleased that the township is in the midst of revisiting its master plan in regard to the parks and recreational facilitates in Scotch Plains. We need to take a critical look at the condition of the existing facilitates, as well as look for opportunities to build new recreation spaces when possible.  Moreover, we need to continue our close working relationship with Union County to ensure that the people of Scotch Plains have continued access to the County’s wonderful parks and recreation spaces, including some right here in our home town.  All the while, we must be mindful of issues like environmental stewardship and sustainability – there is no question open space is a commodity.  Simply put, the families of Scotch Plains deserve that we think big and, when necessary, outside of the proverbial box, when it comes to the utilization of our parks and recreation spaces.

Part of thinking big is finding creative ways to pay for new fields and park space, and to upgrade existing spaces in need of maintenance.  Public-private partnerships can provide a significant way to raise additional revenue, without impacting tax rates, to meet our needs and audacious goals.    

I have experience brokering public-private partnerships.  In Newark, I helped spearhead one of the first privately funded, no questions asked, full amnesty gun buyback programs in our state’s history.  We were able to take hundreds of illegal, unwanted, or unsafe guns off the streets without creating another drain for taxpayers.  Public-private partnerships work where municipal resources cannot bear the burden alone, and they can be used for various purposes – many of which could be ideal in Scotch Plains.    

Our township is truly fortunate to have such thriving sports programs for our children, and to have wonderful professionals that manage our town’s parks and recreation facilities. It is yet another reason why young families move here.  But we need to protect and invest in our parks and recreation spaces, treating them as an amenity for our residents, not an afterthought.    

I look forward to helping coordinate this effort with the members of our community already working on the recreation master plan by working closely with our local sports leagues, the Township Recreation Commission, as well as the other members of the Council, to identify long-term solutions that are tangible, cost-efficient, and can begin in the very near future.  While bringing new, state of the art youth sports facilities to Scotch Plains is going to take some time and patience, there are lots of things we can start to do now to help build for the future.