To the Editor:

On April 10, property owners in the Town of Potsdam, including the Village of Potsdam but excluding the Village of Norwood, may vote on the formation of a recreation district.

Town outside village residents and Village residents have been both supporting Potsdam Recreation for years.

The Potsdam Village Board voted last year to no longer fund recreation through the Potsdam Village budget, but rather have village residents pay through the town taxes they pay.

The Village of Norwood already supports a recreation program. Forming a Potsdam Recreation District would exclude them from supporting two recreational programs.

I support the formation of a recreation district.

We have had a recreation program in this community for a long time.

The same taxpayers would be contributing to the program but it will bring the management of the program under the jurisdiction of one governing body.

One board will handle the budget and make decisions about the program.

It is important for a community to offer a recreational program.

It not only benefits members of our community, but it brings people to the community. Currently, we think of the program benefiting mainly the youth of our community, but there is no reason we can’t improve the offerings or scope of the program to provide a greater variety of recreational opportunities for many other age groups.

We need to consider ways to fund the program that do not rely only on tax revenues.

All this will be more efficiently done when one governing body runs the program.

I support the formation of this recreation district and hope property owners in the Town and Village of Potsdam (excluding Norwood Village) will vote in favor of continuing a strong recreation program for our community.

To do this, you need to vote yes on April 10.

Rose Rivezzi

Town Councilwoman