To the Editor:
The City Council voted 7 to 0 to support the Nursery Field project. It’s time to move on.
“Tuning in to Watch ‘Let’s Make a Deal,’” The Rye Record’s column on the decision, seems to single out Councilman Bill Henderson. Like every member of the council, Henderson did his homework and reached his conclusion on the difficult Nursery Field issue. To speculate, as the editorial’s central thesis does, that Bill recently altered his opinion or voted in response to Republican Party pressure willfully ignores easily verifiable facts.
There are no litmus tests in the Rye Republican Party. The party has never expressed a position on the Nursery Field. We do not dictate the individual votes of Republican council members. Period.
I would have ignored this column except for the fact that it undermines something I feel very strongly about. I have spent over 25 years urging young people and newcomers to Rye to get more engaged in our governing process. By attacking and speciously attributing ulterior motives to council members, The Rye Record makes it less likely that quality people will be willing to serve on future city councils. Moreover, denigrating a group of generous donors because some of its members expressed a desire to get more involved in civic affairs seems petty and irresponsible.
Rye seeks to provide a platform for excellence for our children and grandchildren. Excellence in sports, among other things, demands balancing the need for fields and our limited space, properly managing our fields, and doing everything in a responsible environmental manner. Future solutions demand thoughtful leadership and serious balanced reporting by our press. Over the next several months, as divisive partisan rhetoric rises on the national level, let’s remember that we are friends and neighbors trying to solve local problems.
Jono Peters, Rye Republican district leader