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Editorial: Naming the Ballfields

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May 9th 2008

by Nancy Sapir
Perhaps the selectmen should have checked with state and federal authorities to see if they might be close to handing down indictments for profiteering and arson before they, on the recommendation of the Ballfield Committee, named the new sports complex after the late father of one of the ballfield committee’s movers and shakers.

What should we call the million-dollar ball field complex off Pottle Street? And should the public have a say in the name selected? Sound Off! Join the discussion: Naming The Ballfields

At their last meeting, the selectmen behaved like the hired help (with the exception of Olly De Macedo who is the hired help) of Peter Opachinski, owner of Southeastern Sand and Gravel, who allegedly donated $500,000 to assist in building the ballfields in voting to name the complex after the late Norman Opachinski, Peter's father. The problem is the selectmen have to vote to accept any gift over $25, and they did about one year ago for the amount of $60,000 or so, and oddly enough, neither the board nor Town Administrator Kevin Donovan nor the Ballfield Committee itself can find any proof in writing about a donation worth half a million dollars. A donation like that would make one heck of a tax write-off for Mr. Opachinski.

To somehow mitigate the outrageous vote, the board also voted to name a park at the site after the late Jonathan Rizzo, by all accounts a splendid young man who was viciously taken from his good family and this community. The Jonathan Rizzo Foundation is donating stadium quality lighting to the sports complex at great cost. Even if the foundation were not contributing so significantly, it would still make sense to honor the memory of Jonathan Rizzo. Why exactly are we honoring the memory of Norman Opachinski except that his son and the Ballfield Committee want to. Thanks to the additional generosity of the Rizzo Foundation, a small park will be created to honor the memory of Kingston's children who left us too soon.

Additionally, Tony Borelli, a ballfield committee member, told the board that the committee wishes to backfill and restore the land where the Davis' barn once stood. What incredible arrogance! Have these people no shame? Sharon and Glen Davis had to file a lawsuit that is still unresolved in order to claim that land as their own. Sharon Davis' father bought that land from the town, but the deed apparently had never been recorded. The selectmen have fought the Davis family legally every step of the way, costing the Davises legal fees and heartache and costing us plenty in legal fees. Defendants can't drop lawsuits nor decide how to resolve them. Sharon and Glen Davis have that prerogative, and frankly, it would be a good thing for them to stay the course and get that to which they are entitled. And please let's not forget that it was Selectman Olly De Macedo who told Glen Davis his barn could burn down. Then it did.

When we had selectmen who were defenders of this town, gravel operators like the young Opachinski had their operations scrutinized carefully because Kingston is one of the most gravel rich communities in the state. Gravel serves as a filter for water and helps to keep it clean. Time after time, the former selectmen challenged and opposed gravel operators to protect our drinking water and our most valuable town resource. This board, however, gives it away, and if you watched or attended Mr. Opachinski's most recent gravel hearing, you saw the amount of protesters with serious and well articulated concerns for the land on which Mr. Opachinski is planning to build a housing development. They were treated like interlopers and nuisances at that selectmen's meeting, as is anyone who challenges the great and powerful wizards of odd.

The naming of the ballfields might have been a tremendous opportunity for old and young alike to offer suggestions on naming the complex based on the genuine contributions, not necessarily monetary ones, of locals both living and passed. There should have been some great significance attached to this complex, but the significance is only to the Opachinski family and the selectmen.

Oddly, Mark Beaton joined in the vote. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, one might conclude that he is weary of fighting his own board on every issue, but still, we had an expectation that he would rally once again and do the right thing. Perhaps he believed what the selectmen told us all-that Mr. Opachinski contributed in one way or another a half million dollars. Does anyone really believe that?

Those ballfields cost the town over one million dollars when we could have received one million dollars by accepting the proposal of the P.A. Landers who would have paid us, constructed the fields in a safer location, and taken in return materials from the site which could have been monitored for the benefit of the town. The ballfields also cost the Davis family their barn, legal fees, and a lot of grief, fear, and upset. That Ballfield Committee got what it wanted by hook and by crook.

This will not be the last time this board acts badly. They know the political tides have turned and they are, to a man, on their way out. They have nothing to lose, and therefore they will simply continue to favor those who favor them, but not for much longer.

TKO Archives: Pottle Street Ballfields and Related Stories

• Davis/Pottle St. Fire Articles:
  Update - Arson Update - Tuesday, May 28
  Photos - All Our Pottle Street Fire Photos - Friday, May 24
  Update - ARSON! - Friday, May 24
  First Report - Pottle Street Fire - Arson Suspected - Thursday, May 23
  Update - Arson Investigation Underway - Arson Time Line - May 28, 2002
  Update - Polygraph Test Requests Widen June 19, 2002
  Update - Arson Investigation Continues June 19, 2002
    

• Davis Property Dispute Articles:
  Article - Pottle Street Land Dispute
  Article - Authorization to Sell Land
  Article - Additional Pottle St. Documents Found
  Article - A Pottle Street 'Deal' May be Brewing
  Article - Pottle Pot Boils into Legal Realm
    

• Pottle Street Ball Field Articles:
  Update - Contractor 'Un-Fired' by Ballfield Committee - August 27, 2002
  Update - FIRED: Ballfield Contractor is Out - August 21, 2002
  Article - Operation Dirt Pile
  Article - Town Halts Ballfield Mining Operation
  Update - WATD Hears Explanations
  Article - Who Pays For Pottle Field Damage?
  Article - Teflon Ted
  Article - 360º Tour of Pottle Street Ball Fields

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