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If RCSSA falls short of its ambitious fund-raising goals, the county would be obligated to make the payments. What assurance is there that the association can raise that kind of cash—consistently, and over a full decade?
The association claims it has an anonymous donor promising to give $22,000 annually over 10 years. But who is this generous person, and how sure can we be that the money will keep flowing for a decade? Even if it does, that leaves another $29,000 to be raised every year, in good times and bad, by RCSSA. Is that plausible?
Beyond money matters, the proposal raises other issues. Will light pollution from the sports fields spoil Rappahannock’s famous dark night skies? Will large crowds generate noise, traffic, parking problems or rowdiness that would bother neighbors? What’s so bad about playing sports in the afternoon, anyway?
During a year in which the county trimmed the school budget, squeezed teacher pay raises and eliminated jobs, what kind of message does it send to spend a half-million bucks on sports lights? Even if it isn’t the county’s money that’s spent, it looks like athletic programs are getting higher priority than teacher pay and school basics.
We urge the School Board, which will take up the lighting plan June 27, and the supervisors, who likely will consider it July 7, to put this deal under a bright, searching light before obligating the county to it.
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