To the editor:

I sent the following letter to Mr. Pohlman:

I was at the budget review board meeting Tuesday morning and I am fully aware of your dilemma in preparing budget cuts that no one wants to be a part of. At 50 Plus Softball our main objective is to provide an outlet for our seniors to remain active and for some of us playing ball has been our past time since childhood.

For the record, we (50 Plus Softball) have no problem with you cutting our program as we have always felt we were being overcharged anyway. We have previously requested to operate our league independent from the city and this request was proposed to Mr. Avellino numerous times by previous board members to no avail.

We have no objection paying the city of Cape Coral a “use” fee as is done in numerous municipalities but we have not been able to get that number from either you nor Mr. Avellino to date. Just as a reference I believe Lee County wants to charge us $20 per field used and I do believe this includes lights but nothing else.

Being a Cape Coral League since our inception we would love to continue playing our games in the Cape providing your fees are reasonable by comparison. We do not have to necessarily play at the BMX field so please do not just do a cost analysis on that field alone, contrary to what you believe and stated at the meeting this morning we feel the cost to maintain the fields at BMX is but a fraction of the cost to maintain the BMX track and facilities at that location.

50 Plus Softball members are obviously all over 50 years of age and being responsible adults and citizens we do not need to be supervised by city employees to play our games nor do we need City personnel to prepare our schedules as has been done in the past.

We will also provide our own umpires in addition to assigning our own field crew to either lay down the playing field lines or even rake the infields if need be.

I do believe that Parks & Recreation should be a service provided to our citizens without cost analysis but that does not imply that we should not look at each program using a “profit center” analysis city wide. Just as we are willing to become an independent program within the Parks Department we also need to analyze what other programs warrant possibly being “privatized” such as the Water Park, which as you stated is and has been losing money for a number of years.

As you know our next season begins in the first week of September so we need to make a decision in the near future where we will be playing our games. I know you have a busy schedule but please review our request and ascertain what the “use” fee will be at your earliest convenience.

Joseph Madia

Treasurer

50 Plus Softball of Cape Coral