75° F
2 Editor:
I am a senior at Bastrop High School and I am hoping to change something I have very strong feelings toward. This year has been one of my greatest school years ever. I came in this year as a senior thinking that it was just going to be like my junior year. I was so wrong. This year we got a new stadium where we played football, and were thought to be the underdogs. We were district champs!
We had great times on that field which brings me to the reason I’m writing this. This year we were asked to vote on where we would like our 2010 graduation ceremony to be held. The majority vote from the students was for it to be held at the new Memorial Stadium. Later we found out the principal had overruled our vote for various reasons.
I have questions about these reasons. One questions is why were we asked for our vote if our vote wasn’t going to be taken into consideration and was going to be overruled? Secondly, traffic. Yes, I do understand that there are traffic problems but how did we manage to have football games there this year? Yes, that is a hazard with all that traffic, so why did they decide to put the stadium there? Another issue is there isn’t enough parking at the new stadium. Well, I ask where is there enough parking at the old stadium? Last year there was a fire during graduation and that was a problem for the firefighters to get through to the scene because so many cars lined the streets. That’s a hazard if you ask me! My last point is, we are paying all these taxes for something that’s not even going to be used.
I’ve talked to many students and people from the community who are in support of my petition for the 2010 graduating class to be able to graduate on the Memorial Stadium field where we’ve looked forward to graduating on all year. I have started a petition and hope to make a change with everyone’s support. If you would like to sign the petition please e-mail me at graduatingclass2O1Oyahoo.com
Thank you
Maridel Lopez
Maridel, have you considered running for the scchool board?
Maridel Lopez says: “Yes, I do understand that there are traffic problems but how did we manage to have football games there this year? Yes, that is a hazard with all that traffic, so why did they decide to put the stadium there? Another issue is there isn’t enough parking at the new stadium. Well, I ask where is there enough parking at the old stadium?”
You have figured out what many of us know, elected and non elected officials put themselves first. I don’t know what money changed hands concerning the location of the football stadium, but you can be sure, given the shady reputation of officials AND the poor location of the stadium, some ones palm got greased.
The only way to improve the situation is to actually reroute Hwy 21 around the Stadium and use the existing Hwy 21 as an entrance and exit to rerouted Hwy 21. This probably won’t happen in time for the class of 2025, let alone the class of 2010. This multi million dollar waste of taxpayer dollars will always suffer unless more parking is available and Hwy 21 is rerouted. The longer you live in Bastrop the more you will see boondoggles like the stadium surface. I like Mr. Lewis suggestion – run for school board and try not to take bribes.