Article 12 And The Recreational Facilities Working Group

To the editor: Members of the Nantucket Community, Town Meeting will be held on Monday, May 4, at 4:30 p.m. in the Nantucket High School Auditorium, and we encourage voters to attend. The warrant includes many important issues, including Article 12, which seeks an appropriation of $26 million for improvements to Vito Capizzo Stadium at Nantucket High School. We want to avoid any confusion regarding Article 12 and our joint March 18 announcement establishing a new Recreational Facilities Working Group involving the Nantucket Public Schools, Land Bank and Town.

Article 12 has nothing to do with the new Working Group’s mission. We, the Town, Land Bank and Public Schools, are enthusiastic about the Working Group, which is intended to assess Nantucket’s long-term recreational needs and to develop collaborative, creative recommendations for the island community as a whole. It is clear there are insufficient quality playing venues to meet the increasing demands of the Nantucket community.

We look forward to working together on this island-wide challenge and hope to share our findings and recommendations soon, but this long-term planning work is separate from the immediate needs at Vito Capizzo Stadium that would be funded by Article 12 in the warrant at this year’s Town Meeting.

Brooke Mohr, Select Board, Town of Nantucket

Beth Hallett, Superintendent, Nantucket Public Schools

Rachael Freeman, Executive Director, Nantucket Land Bank

C. Elizabeth Gibson, Town Manager