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Minot parks could be better

So this morning, Memorial Day, myself and a few friends went down to Hammond Park to play tennis as we do every Saturday and holiday at 8 a.m. This morning like most the nice folks that come and open up the facilities came at around 9:45 a.m. This is about average give or take a 30 minutes one way or the other.

As a group, we are always so grateful when they finally show up each Saturday and holiday so we can finally use the facilities. I have been putting up with this wait and see when they get there game for years.

This Saturday we attempted to play as we normally do at Hammond Park, we were kept from playing based on a girls tennis tournament being held, great no problem. We moved on to Roosevelt Park. No go, reserved for girls. We went to the high school. No go. Locked (why?). So by about 9 a.m. after driving all over Minot we arrived at South Hill community complex to catch a tennis game on the worst tennis courts in Minot. No problem. Happy to see young women organized get a chance to play outdoor sports together.

These courts at South Hill are far and beyond any others in Minot the worst the parks have to offer. They have trash on them. The gates are locked open so you can’t keep your balls from running away. But the worst of it is that the courts have bad nets and chalk drawings all over the courts that were put there by some organized kids groups that did not care that they are tennis courts and not designed for treasure hunts or kick ball games.

We are seeing more and more of this at all the tennis courts around Minot. No one comes out and enforces the rules. There are signs, but no one cares. These facilities are expensive, it seems it’s important to protecting the bathrooms and water used, but forget the tennis courts.

We could use a little respect for tennis. Kick ball is not for tennis courts and all other games like this are for open play areas. We have hundreds of acres of grass fields in Minot for this kind of activity. Can we get a little enforcement of the rules so that we will still have tennis courts that are not trashed into the future?

But let me get to my main point, I digress.

What adds insult to injury when trying to use the parks of Minot this weekend is that the bathrooms were still closed by the time we left there at 11:30 in the morning. We could not stay any longer. You could not go to the bathroom or get a drink of water, because every access to water to include the drinking fountains and hose spouts have clearly a master shut off that turns off the entire park for even a drop of water.

So forget using the bathroom or drinking water in a park all the way up to noon on a Saturday in Minot? REALLY…

I don’t know about you folks that manage these services in Minot. But for me, as a tax-paying citizen (who) lives in this wonderful town, I think we can do better. I understand the concept of controlling these bathrooms to stop homeless people from hanging out, not to mention out of control teens from using it as a hang out all night. But, are we not going overboard one direction to keep facilities from the abusers? But in the end, we are also keeping services from the tax-paying park-using good Minot citizens.

This morning alone I watched four people come to use the bathroom and find it locked and looked around to see if anyone was looking and because they were far and away from any other option, chose to break the law and use the bathroom outdoors. Is this not the exact thing we are trying to stop by locking up these facilities night and day? Is this what it’s come to for Minot residents to use the public parks outside of the hours that some one can randomly make it to open them up? When they get there, they get there right? No, it should not be that way at all… It’s not like every business in America that is not run by government has a posted time they open and close. This basic service is not to much to ask for…

So I gather you get the idea and I hope that you care to do something about it. We as a community deserve to have access to the facilities we pay good money for before half a day has gone by. I am sure that with all the young people in Minot looking for jobs that having them show up between 8 a.m. and 12 to open up bathrooms and turn on water fountains can be stepped up to do a little better job.

I know what the response will be. We got busy at one location and can’t make it to the other in time. Well, let’s debate and consider that dumping trashes, cleaning up after folks and doing alot of this and that is not as important as making basic services available to the general public. It would not be all that big a deal to have someone drive around and get the basic service opened up and then return for all the busy work.

May I request as a person directly effected by this, that at an earlier hour say 7 a.m. We send someone from park to park with one job. Turning on the water and opening up the bathrooms. So that runners, basketball players, kids on swings early, Moms and Grandmothers on a walks early, kids at sports camps, etc. like this morning can have a place to go to the bathroom and get a drink of water. I asked the nice young man and women that showed up at 9:45 a.m. this morning to open the bathrooms at Hammond Park if they would mind starting earlier, the answer was “No.”

So fine managers of our community facilities here in the great town of Minot. Can I request as a good citizen on the behalf of lots of early risers that want to get out and use our wonderful parks and recreation facilities, get the hours of bathroom and water fountain availability stepped up a few hours for the sake of those that really enjoy the morning.

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