open space - a tale of deception

Nestled in this windbreak of trees stands the only farmhouse on Swanberg Road. There's a grass roots effort to buy up farmland before the developers move in, creating open space areas. Sounds like a decent plan, but most of the open space land already purchased is lying fallow, the fields empty except for weeds. It seems the groups have not thought about the problem of utilization and maintenance.

Some, wisely, have rented out the land to local farmers for planting, until viable plans can be developed for useage.

One plan did surface that enraged our local populace. One day while driving down Swanberg I noticed a sign had popped up in the field, "Future site of Poyner Recreation Area". It sent the mind to spinning - groomed snowmobile and cross country trails maybe? No........the plan was for 15 baseball and soccer fields - - 15 - - with enough parking to support those fields. And large stanchion lighting for night play. Basically in my neighbors back yard. And the kicker was that usage was only for the soccer and baseball groups from communities about 10 miles away. Our kids couldn't even use this "recreation area".

Certainly not our idea of "open space". It's been challenged, and for now, we've won the battle. Not yet the war.