I live on the street where the park is, what the headmaster of the school doesnt tell you is that the town council called and sent letters to him to sit down and dicuss the matter, the headmaster refused, instead he called the news stations and said the town is mean and wont let our kids use the park for free. It is not even a county park it is a town park, the residents of the town pay for it. The council has no problem with the kids using it but they need to pitch in financially like everyone else. The headmaster won’t even sitdown to have a conversation, if he thinks smearing the towns public image will help his cause he is wrong. Yes the town said 4k, but sitdown with them and make your case, maybe its 1k and the schools own handyman helps out with repairs, who knows, but you can’t resolve anything if you are unwilling to talk about it.

Chances are the parents still pay taxes for public schools and other city or school district owned and operated facilities don’t they? I know that in most states everyone, even private school student parents, pay taxes for these things, even if they don’t use them.

…and we’d think that conservatives would not be denied certain facets of health care by levels upon levels of beuracrats loyal only to some ‘ism.

You just don’t get. A park means lots of high paying jobs for slackers. An
empty park means even less work.

You just have to understand WHAT the park is for.

Since when are public parks based on usage anyway. Is this town going to
refund money to people that never go to the park?

So why select one small group to chip in and pay. Why not users of the park
in the evenings as well?

No there’s just an attitude here that the public park belongs to the park
district, not the public.

instead he called the news stations and said the town is mean and wont let our kids use the park for free.

It’s a public park. The school, the school’s employees and the parents of the school’s students all pay taxes no doubt. So why shouldn’t they get to use it for “free”? They’re paying for it, as well as the city school system which they’ve opted out of.

So the park isn’t for kids to play in. The park is for the government
to give bureacrats jobs managing and administering them.

Gotcha.

And then they complain that our kids are too fat.

That’s a really good point, Neiman. Private school/home school parents continue to pay taxes for public schools. And they pay taxes for the public parks. And yet they’re denied use of them?

The parks that is, specifically. Not that these parents are being denied access to the public schools.

haven’t all of the childrens parents already paid for maintenance of the park through normal taxes? Shouldn’t wear & tear be based on annual usage since the budget is annual.

Spin it any way you want Sparkie, you’re wanting to turn tax dollar funded parks into a revenue stream, capitalist pig.

This needs to be opposed. I will post it in a couple places. Pressure works.

I think the parents being targeted for this should ask to be opted out of
the park department taxes.

Whistler, you maybe right, there could easily be some petty park people protecting their turf, but call me cynical, I guess my observation is based upon experience and years of watching these elected legislative critters. Regardless of whether they are city, county, state or federal critters in Fargo, Bismarck, Annapolis, Baltimore or Washington, they are always looking for two things: increasing their power/authority over our lives and seeking more of other people’s (our) money to spend. These critters prefer having our money given to them to spend, but as an alternative, they will settle for mandating how you spend your money. True, the amount is small, but you have to start somewhere – the old adage about the camels nose in the tent comes to mind. As to your question why target this group? Just my gut feeling but, based upon years of living in MD, this state is heavily controlled by Democrats helped kept in power by their union goons and thugs. If you are going to shake down an organization for money, what better way to help your friends than to pick on a private school which probably is not under the control of the local teacher’s Union?

On the other hand, maybe it isn’t about maintenance and clean-up, but the money. Like most governments, Kensington has probably been impacted by the current economic downtown and is looking for ways to increase revenues – you can not expect government officials to participate in the recession. The town just wants the money.