Park district wouldn't let kids have fun with dirt

To the curmudgeons of Newbury Park: What a sad state of affairs we live in.

Today, Conejo Recreation and Park District employee Nick Turner decided he had to rain on the parade of some neighborhood boys who were enjoying the unexpected surprise of a few piles of dirt that had recently been dumped in the vacant lot behind Banyan Elementary School and Banyan Park.

These boys, ages 9 through 16, several of whom are honors students at Newbury Park High School, are good, hardworking kids, always on the lookout for new terrain to ride their mountain bikes on. Recently their good fortune was the aforementioned dirt, which became the perfect canvas on which to create a place to ride.

Several days of hard labor moving tons of dirt yielded something great for kids of all ages to enjoy. Mr. Turner made sure it came to a screeching halt. There's been a lot of discourse recently from people wishing there were more things for kids to do in this town. We can't get our city officials to promote a new recreation complex for teenagers, preferring a second Home Depot instead. So a few enterprising kids put in their own sweat and muscle to create something at no cost to our city, only to lose it.

Whether Mr. Turner showed up on his own accord or because somebody called him, I find it pitiful that people are so bitter that they can't let a few kids put their energies into something useful.

The real kicker is that others who live nearby were informed by the police that it was okay for the boys to be there.

Imagine the person wasn't satisfied until they found somebody- i.e. CRPD- to object to what the boys were doing.

Way to go, Newbury Park. Kevin Redner Newbury Park