As a resident of Ridgefield, and a supporter of our schools, I have a request to make regarding the improvements being done at our schools. Please make the playground areas of our schools accessible after hours and on weekends. It is a tremendous waste of these resources if they are not available to the community when school is closed. As an example: without being able to use the basketball hoops at Union Ridge Elementary, there is only one hoop in the entire downtown Ridgefield area, the one at the skate park.
I recognize we need to keep our school campuses safe, but preventing the public from accessing playground areas when school is closed is wasteful. I imagine the new gates and locks are operated and monitored from a central system. It should not be too hard to have a system that allows access to playgrounds, but leaves the buildings secure. If this can be done, including signs at gates indicating when the area is open to the public would be good.
Affording access to playgrounds is not too much to ask for as bond proposals are presented repeatedly to accommodate population growth.
