| Commemorative
Bench Program 'Facts' Wrong |
|
To the editor:
|
| Since I am the chairman of the Reston Association's Facilities
Advisory Committee, I read with interest the letter to the
editor in The Observer from Pat Smythe, who stated that I
"canceled" the Commemorative Bench Program and said
that it was not "necessary." |
| I'm pretty sure I know where Ms. Smythe got her "facts"
from, but they are wrong. First of all, to anyone who thinks
that I, as the chairman of the Facilities Advisory Committee,
have the power to cancel any of RA's programs, thank you very
much, but that's not the way the system works. |
| It is not true that the program was ready to be rolled out
in July. One particular individual, outside of the Reston
Association, was ready to go with the program, and tried to
push RA staff into going forward with it, but it had not been
reviewed by the facilities committee nor approved by the board. |
| There were (and still are) several questions that need to
be addressed and the committee is trying to gather information
and take the best recommendations back to the board of directors.
|
| The program that was initially proposed does not take into
consideration maintenance and replacement. Apparently RA is
either supposed to take on the costs of both or come back
to the donor for more money when the bench needs to be replaced.
In the Committee's opinion, neither of these are acceptable
answers. |
| Had Ms. Smythe bothered to check the minutes of the Facilities
Advisory Committee meetings she would have found that the
committee has been working on this issue for several months.
At one point, staff informed the advisory committee that there
is already a commemorative program in place comprising a lot
more than just benches. |
| Not wishing to "re-invent the wheel," the committee
(at the suggestion of our board liaison) asked staff to compile
a list of existing "commemoratives" as well as costs
associated with them. This list was not available to the Committee
until its most recent (Oct. 1) meeting. At that time, the
committee reviewed the list and will be working on coming
up with recommendations for publicizing and centralizing the
existing program. |
| I suggest that, in the future, before taking pen to paper,
Ms. Smythe investigate an issue thoroughly. I invite Ms. Smythe
and anyone else who is interested in this or other facility-related
issues to come to the Facilities Advisory Committee meetings
held on the first Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m. in the Isaac
Newton Square offices of the Reston Association. |
| Marie Vincent |
| Chair, Facilities Advisory Committee |
| Reston Association |
