To the Editor:
Let’s unite in supporting the 2024-2025 Rye City School District budget on May 21. It’s a carefully thought-out budget that supports all the great things in our schools that our kids and community deserve and have come to expect. The budget also includes a complete renovation of the Rye High School softball field, a long-overdue upgrade.
As someone who has been deeply involved in softball for many years — first coaching in the rec league Rye Girls Softball, then the travel league, then as a parent volunteer to the JV team and now the Varsity team at the high school, where my daughter is a sophomore — I know first-hand the pressing need for these improvements. I also manage and play on a team in the Rye Rec adult men’s league.
Moreover, I am a structural engineer. It doesn’t take the trained eye of an engineer to tell how dire the condition of the current softball field is. It is pockmarked with divots, ruts, and craters. The backstop is incredibly shallow. There is no batting cage. It is by far the worst field our girls play on during the season. And it’s not only the school softball teams that use the field. It’s also used by Rye Girls Softball program and the community adult women and men’s softball leagues.
The 2024-25 budget supports the installation of a drainage system underneath the field, a complete resurfacing of the field, a new backstop, home run fencing, and a new batting cage.
Please join me in voting “YES” for the School District budget on May 21.
Louis Rollano, P.E., M.ASCE