Despite the uproar all summer over taxes and spending, on Sept. 5 the Gorham Town Council frivolously allocated over a quarter of a million dollars to pay for lights on a Little League baseball diamond at Little Falls. Like the movie, this giant expense comes with the promise that if we build it, they will come.
During discussion, Councilor Phil Gagnon declared adding lights meant the town could then host tournaments, claiming that such an event would generate over $100,000 from the snack shack. He prematurely has been in talks with surrounding towns about jointly hosting tournaments, copying Waterville, whose tournaments supposedly bring thousands of people to their area. He asserted this as an investment in economic development.
Next, a special meeting of Gorham’s Capital Improvement/Economic Development Committee was held on Oct. 10. Councilors Gagnon, Suzanne Phillips and Virginia Wilder Cross invited some of Gorham’s youth sports programs to share their dreams for the Little Falls and Chick Drive properties. During this discussion, the president of the Gorham Youth Baseball and Softball Association clarified that lights are not in fact required to host a tournament, however batting cages are. Because of the wetland and drainage issues at Little Falls, they could not erect a batting cage, but would be willing to pay for one, if only the land were dry.
So at the Jan. 2 Town Council meeting, in addition to the $265,000 for four lights and poles, public works was ordered to use their time and resources to address the wet areas of Little Falls. Word is that there are additional costs to getting the power needed for the lights, upgrading the parking and road, and of course, the food trucks on Thursdays will need to be moved (Oct. 10 meeting).
This is shortsighted and self-serving, not a field of dreams with a cash cow in it.
Kelli Deveaux
Gorham
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