In an open letter to Rye City Council, Overlook Place resident Rammy Harwood says the city council has disappointed him in regards to its consideration of artificial turf for Nursery Field. Harwood also spoke at the November 29, 2023 council meeting – see the video below.
From Harwood:
Mayor, City Council Members, and City Manager,
For those of you who have had the privilege of being parents, coupled with your experience as youths, the word “disappointed” is powerful.
If you got in trouble as a child, your parents presumably got “mad” – emotions would fly and then would pass – we likely would make other poor decisions after poor decisions (hopefully fewer and fewer :).
But when your grandparent, who, if fortunate enough with whom you had a good relationship, told you, calmly, how “disappointed” they were in you….it hurt differently – it dug deeper….very deep.
Why? Because you let them down.
Letting people down is one of the worst feelings that kind and good people can feel.
This city council has disappointed me….said as calmly and sternly as humanly possible.
As a “non-transient” resident who didn’t just “move here for a few years”, I am in awe of how this City Council, and this community, is being manipulated by a few members to mitigate progress in our town.
Progress.
That’s for what we all strive….everyone on this planet. Just 1 bp better today than yesterday.
Similar to my friend Milly Keighery who voiced her opinion of feeling “unwanted” because of comments from a long standing, prejudiced Rye resident a few months ago, I am embarrassed of being associated with a community, being led by “elected” City Council members, that has bullied its way to control the narrative of how they want it. Watching the last City Council meeting was nothing short of uncomfortable.
The hypocrisy and bullying was Trump-esque and made me question how I could help.
This is my attempt to voice my opinion.
You found consultants to do research on finding the most suitable location for a turf field.
You used tax payer dollars to pay said consultants.
You received unbiased / third party recommendations after thorough research.
You were given this feedback in written and verbal (live and via video) form multiple times.
You felt that this process was rushed after 4 years, which, although I may be wrong, is longer than the time you have been contemplating buying land in the other side of 95, which may impact tax payers vs the donation of the field.
You paused the process for a short duration – the end of February.
You extended that “pause” another month. #shocker!
Just like I never thought in my lifetime (or any of my kids or their kids’ lifetime) that Roe vs Wade would be overturned…in the current form, the story I am telling myself (#BreneBrown) is that this short term pause will be permanent and our children’s mental health will be impacted. I hope I’m wrong because I am often.
Let’s focus on progress.
-Rammy Harwood
Good letter!
And it gets worse. There’s a disinformation campaign about the Nursery Field proposal, and it appears that a member of the City Council is involved. The Feb. 23 issue of The Rye Record has five letters opposing Nursery Field. All five misrepresent the facts. And all five were written by friends of Councilman Josh Nathan’s.
From the start, Councilman Nathan has been stretching to find something – anything – wrong with the proposal. He began by saying he lives nearby and uses Nursery Field as his neighborhood park. Residents objected to Nathan’s conflict of interest. He then dropped the “I like it just as it is,” argument, but kept searching for a way to kill the project. What a loss for the community if he succeeds!
But it’s not too late for the City Council to do the right thing. I hope they’ll end the March 6 information session by lifting the pause, finishing the plan and sending it out to bid.