My position on Caledonia's Parks

In my previous post I mentioned that Caledonia is a unique community. One of the things that makes us so unique is our blend of rural and urban spaces. We have recreational parks with ball diamonds, soccer fields, playgrounds, etc., and we have passive parks that are open spaces with trails. Both types of parks are important to this community.

However, the Park and Rec Department, and the value of parks and programs, is an area in which my opponent (Ms. McCalvy) and I have distinctly different views.

Ms. McCalvy is the Village Board representative on the Park and Rec Commission, yet openly criticizes this Commission saying that it doesn't do anything except work on Crawford Park (for the past 10 years). She believes that Caledonia should place priority on investing in open space parkland and trails, and has decided to sidestep the Park Commission and the Village Board to accomplish this.

I couldn't disagree with Ms. McCalvy more. Although trails are nice, the children of Caledonia need places to go and things to do! Our recreational Parks are the only "quality of life" feature that Caledonia has to offer our kids!

The programs that the Park and Rec Department offer serve as an avenue to community involvement. The money generated by these programs stays within the Park and Rec Department so that it can sustain those programs that it offers to the community.

In 2007, the budgeted amount for the Park and Rec Department was $117,298. For 2008, the proposed budget for the Park and Rec Department is $ 67,939 (basically half of what it was the previous year). The Village of Caledonia itself finished out the year with about $1800 left from a roughly $12,000,000 levied budget. Currently, Caledonia cannot afford to buy more parkland, but if we could, it would be irresponsible (in my opinion) to buy more parkland that we need to maintain before existing parks like Crawford are finished. We need to finish the projects we've started before we take on any new projects!

Recently, the Village approved their official map giving them statuatory rights to about 12 new miles of proposed recreational trails, on land the village doesn't own. Ms. McCalvy has already made an unauthorized visit to the attorney to discuss these trails. Who's paying for all of this?(trails, maintenance, and attorney)

I think that Caledonia needs to seriously examine how we view our Park and Rec Department. We need to hire an enthusiastic Park and Rec Director (not an on-staff ecologist) that can develop this department that has tremendous potential; and work to expand upon and enhance it for a quality of life that everyone in our community can enjoy.

My name is Kathy Burton

My name is Kathy Burton and I would be be honored if you would consider me for Trustee #2 on Tuesday, April 1st.

I have grown up in Caledonia and am now raising my children here as well. Caledonia to me means family, friends, and community. It is the place that I call "Home".

As much as I love Caledonia, it is not without its challenges. This year staff positions had to be cut to maintain our budget. If we do not aggressively pursue commercial development to help ease the burden on the taxpayers, I fear that we may be facing not only cuts in staff, but services as well; or an increase in our taxes to maintain the services that we do have. It's time to be proactive before we are forced to be reactive.

I firmly believe Caledonia should be an affordable community in which to raise a family! As a fiscal conservative, I will never raise taxes simply for the sake of raising taxes, but will work to keep taxes low. To achieve that end, my focus will be an aggressive campaign to attract responsible commercial development as designated in the Land Use Plan which will not only add to the taxbase, but provide jobs. It is also essential that sewer and water services are extended to the I-94 corridor - sooner, rather than later.

I will work diligently to communicate and connect with the community. Since most of our Park and Recreation programs are financially self-sustaining, I would like to see us enhance and expand those programs to serve as an avenue to community involvement.

I will work very hard to do my homework so that I can bring a fair, balanced, common sense approach to make the best decisions that benefit ALL Caledonians.

I am very excited at the prospect of serving the Village and working hard for its residents to make Caledonia a great place to LIVE, WORK and PLAY!

In closing, I would like to let you know that I will be expanding on these ideas in a series of posts yet to come, so check back often and feel free to leave comments or questions. In the meantime, I would like to say, "Thank You" to all readers and I'm asking you for your vote on Tuesday, April 1st.