Submitted by James O’Brien
Open Letter to the Members of the RTM
It breaks my heart to think about how town leadership plans to decimate Morlot Memorial Park with the proposed Dorothy Hamill Rink “flip.” This park is an archive of community history. I skated there for years, coached my son’s baseball games on its field, and visited to honor two of my friends killed in Vietnam who are memorialized on its grounds.
The proposal introduces a 250-foot-long, 50-foot-high “warehouse-style” building adjacent to Western Junior Highway. Because the road sits 15 feet lower than the site, this massive structure will create an oppressive, urban canyon effect for drivers. It will completely monopolize the views from McKinney Terrace and the Putnam Green, while encroaching directly upon the baseball stands. Furthermore, cutting a new road through the park and allowing baseballs to be hit into the sacred Memorial Park area shows a profound lack of respect for its original purpose.
This “flip” appears to have been the preferred choice from day one. The Task Force’s look at the Island Beach parking lot felt like a mere box-checking exercise, considering Greenwich natives well know those filled in marshes below the asphalt contain toxic waste from the old Cos Cob power plant. Meanwhile, leadership rejected the proposal of Harborside rink and renovating the existing rink—the most logical, environmentally sound choice that would preserve our green space and save taxpayers millions of dollars—based on flawed reasoning. “Most Town residents prefer the flip,” another falsification, a survey was never produced.
If approved, this architectural monstrosity will stand as the permanent, negative legacy of our First Selectman, the Task Force Chairman, and the P&Z Commission. I urge the RTM to protect Greenwich’s history, its neighborhoods, and its financial health by rejecting this MI.