Rockville Centre Letters to the Editor

What’s in a name?

To the Editor:

I am an avid user and fan of the decade-old sports complex on Peninsula Boulevard. This complex provides Rockville Centre residents with facilities unmatched by our neighboring towns, giving us and our children the high quality of life we’ve become accustomed to.

However, I have always been uncomfortable with the formal name, the Dean G. Skelos Sports Complex. Aside from functioning as a continual political ad in an overly political society, our former mayor and trustees’ decision to name a publicly funded complex after a contemporaneous politician never seemed right. Sure, he collected our tax dollars to build the field, but when was the last time you were so handsomely rewarded for simply doing your job? (Adam Skelos, please don’t answer.) 

As synonymous with corruption as Albany has become, the naming of publicly funded enterprises should exclude current legislators. While Senator Skelos’s arrest is by no means proof of corruption, the recent failures of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle have offered us continual reminders of the pitfalls of tying our public facilities to specific political figures and require us to re-examine the appropriateness of the name.

How about honoring some of the real heroes in our society, maybe in a similar way Valley Stream does with Fireman’s Field? What if we honored the men and women that served in Iraq and Afghanistan (Veteran’s Sports Complex has a nice ring to it). Or maybe, just simply the RVC Sports Complex? I’m sure a referendum would get us an even better name.

Either way, it’s time to fix this mistake made by Mayor Gene Murray and the trustees 12 years ago.

Bernard Williams

Rockville Centre

Murray could prosecute herself

To the Editor:

Maybe when Kate Murray is elected as Nassau County district attorney she can go after the politicians whose negligence and indifference allowed Brooklyn to steal the Islanders from Nassau County.

Oh. Wait.

Marc Wieman

Rockville Centre