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To the Editor:
I’m writing concerning the closing of city parks, especially the one around Billy Bob Garrison Field. The City of Elizabethton has closed the park and has done nothing to facilitate its reopening. I believe the city is playing political gamesmanship, using the parks as pawns to inflict as much pain as possible for political gain. 

At a minimum the city could tape off the sections they deem unsafe, while much of the park, especially the parking area, is fully functional. The City has now fenced off the walkway under the bridges forcing people on foot to walk along the highway. This is creating a greater safety hazard than letting people walk through the parking lot to get to downtown. There are people who use this path to get to work and they are being prevented from doing so. The City could use a street sweeper to clean the parking lot. They could use the City equipment to pick up a pile of brush. There are citizens that are willing to volunteer to start doing some of the cleanup, but the City is refusing to let them do any work that would not cost the City anything.  

Barack Obama fenced off national parks when he was in office to inflict as much pain as possible when he was in office, and now the City of Elizabethton is doing the same. 

 

Ted Smith

Elizabethton