Thompson Closes City Park

Slow_Poke Published:

Much to the chagrin of city officials and many daily users, we recently learned that East Frankfort Park has been closed. The park is the latest casualty of the recent mayoral debate.

Mayoral candidates come out swinging

State-Journal Published 10/19/12

Thompson jumped right back.

“When I was growing up there was a great little park that I learned to play baseball at, and it was called East Frankfort Park,” he said. He noted that the park is now closed and that the East Frankfort Pool is to be filled in.

Of course this is not entirely the case and East Frankfort Park is in fact a thriving destination. East Frankfort Park is home to the city’s only dog park, two youth baseball fields, tennis courts, sand volleyball, disc golf course, picnic pavilions and walking trails. Maybe Mr. Thompson is not as “in-tune” with the community as he thought.

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  • Slowpoke- Government does teach our kids sports all the way through college, parks and rec, high school, grade school. All I can say is Juniper Hills Golf Course loses $500,000 per year, the pool loses big money too. Our parks are completely government funded (at a loss) to the taxpayers. They are under utilized by a county of 50,000 people but are a necessary evil. If a scheduled league is not taking place at one of our parks, no one is there, That is a fact. But everyone on this string has some valid points but it started out with a post that is a candidate made a verbal mistake. But I guess around 8 pm tonight we will find out who are our next Mayor and City Commissioners. God Bless them and I hope they can deal with our fiscal problems much better than the previous ones have.

  • SpeedRacer are you saying that it is the government's job to teach kids baseball? As for the usage statistics of East Frankfort Park, I guess we will just agree to disagree on the numbers. I will say this. I've lived in Frankfort my whole life and I can tell you without a doubt that our city parks are much better off now than they were when Kyle Thompson was a child. I believe the city's Dept. of Parks and Recreation has done an amazing job to enhance and EXPAND recreational opportunities in Frankfort and Franklin County. I won't let the closing of a swimming pool and one baseball field detract from that fact.

  • Gotta love the attempt by speed racer to try and be sneaky and misguided Democrat and try and blame Republicans on this baseball issue. So let's educate you SR. Tball and Instructional League are two different leagues. Tball as is referred to is for 4-6 ages and is offered by the YMCA. Instructional League is and always has been offered for 7-8 ages by the city and is coached by volunteer parents and NOT not Republican created private entity. Again I repeat not only does the city have 1 field but have created a 2nd field for this age group and have in recent years created girls softball instructional league as well.

  • Slow_Poke, you are right a non public agency has passed the buck to a private enterprise to teach our kids how to play baseball. Thats very Republican of them. Are people playing frisbee golf on aregular basis? once a week maybe, once a month? Dog walking in a very small area? wonder how sanitary it is? Walking trails are not used and really never have. Picnic pavilions are used some, not much- check the reservation schedule at Parks and Rec. I have. Tennis, no one plays Volley ball, again no one plays, they go to Juniper Hills to play.

  • Ihateoxygenthieves, I didn't know if any of your post was directed at me or not, but I believe we are on the same side. I feel that East Frankfort Park is used quite heavily. It is true that the pool is closed, but this is not the only attraction at the park. The dog park is actually a better use for the small field that had been used as an instructional field during Thompson's youth. As you stated, there are now two fields at Lake View for this purpose. Also, I'd add that the YMCA also has two t-ball fields at their facility on the west side of town.

  • -anonymous 733 I don't know who slow poke is, but an oxygen thief is just that. Someone who opens their mouth and waste my oxygen before knowing what they are saying. The city in FACT still offers instructional league baseball at Lakeview Park and they actually have 2 fields dedicated to that league instead of 1 at the old EFP site.....

  • Steve_Fry

    Yes, Speed, I read the post. I did NOT, however, comment on your post, I commented on Appalled's post. I'm sorry, but when you enter your children into the race (by using them in your advertising and exposing them to your constituents), you open up the possibility of this activity. If you don't like them in Sellus' brand of 'disinfectant' sunshine, then keep them in the shadows.

  • Lastingimpression, exactly what "crap" are you referring to? I merely re-posted an excerpt from an article published by the State-Journal and attached my opinion. I even provided the article name and date of publishing. Did I include any mistruths? If I did, please let me know and I will issue an immediate correction!

  • then why didn't you post a photo of a Rose and talk about how beautiful they are. You did not. You wrote crap about a candidate. A Rose is a Rose is a Rose. Your excuse post is nothing but thorns and most see it as you meant.

  • Speed Racer, Let me clear up one point for you. I have no association with May or his campaign. And trying to use an ethics argument on a site where anyone can post almost anything anonymously is pretty futile. For all other Thompson backers, calling this an "attack" ad is a bit of a stretch. The motivation behind this post was less about Kyle Thompson and more about knocking Speed Racer's hideous sheep photo off the page. My intent was to poke fun at Speed Racer and his one man political show. If someone wishes to use this site as their personal propaganda machine, then by all means get out your checkbook and purchase an ad. Maybe then the State-Journal could afford to lower my subscription rate! Steve - You are correct in your critique of my editing skills. I promise to work hard and get better! :o)

  • Mockette, the point is, ethically, Campaigns do not include a family photo in an attack ad. Period. Steve Fry, the argument made by Apalled is from a family aspect, not a Photoshop aspect. Did you even read the post? The norm is a candidate can use their family in introduction pieces and positive pieces. You should only attack a candidate, not use the family in the attack ad. The key is the attack ad, not the positive ad.

  • Just as I thought. http://thompson4mayor.com the first two pictures at the top of the page are of his family, kids included. The picture with this opinion piece...is from the front page of his web site. Looks like Kyle himself made the choice to use/include his family in his politic'n.

  • Steve_Fry

    Appalled? At the photoshop job?? Give me a break. A quick Google image search for ("kyle thompson" frankfort) very quickly yields pages of images, a few of which are of his family. The most egregious thing I see is that the creator didn't keep the correct aspect ratio when resizing the image -- it looks vertically stretched. :o)

  • no surprise here !

  • Even Speedracer kept Bill Mays family out of his attacks. I do not know much about Mr. Thompson but I do know how Frankfort has been doing over the last dozen years & it isn't getting any better. I have great respect for Bill May as a person & nobody can say that he doesn't have a heart for others. There comes a point when a change of leadership is needed & we do ourselves no favors to vote in a popular person or vote name recognition only. It is human nature to get complacent after twenty some years in the same role & they will get to the point of only serving themselves & friends. My problem is I truly don't like the choices that we have in this race & it is like picking the lesser of two evils. The way I see it is Frankfort needs headed in another direction & the only way to help it is to change the top. I say give Mr. Thompson the chance. He knows he will be toast in the next election if he doesn't kowtow to the citizens needs.

  • Hey Slow Poke, I wonder where you get that name... Maybe because you're slow to realize that there is now no place to learn how to play ball as the instructional field is gone, the pool is in fact closed, and is slated to be filled in later on. Doesn't sound like you're real quick actually. Keep on being slow, poke.

  • A correction > "but even those never used fail is in a negative way", I meant "but even those never used families in a negative way"

  • I am absolutely appalled at a political attack ad that includes a candidates wife and children. This is beyond reprehensible. It is one thing for a campaign to do ads against the opponent but to bring his wife and young children in is so irresponsible, think if his children get teased tomorrow at school cause his Dad supposedly closed down a county park. Why don't you also point out that he cause Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Katrina and climate change. Those accusations are about as credible as this one. Look yourself in the mirror and reflect on what you just did. I have watched some of the nastiest, name calling, spinning information put forth in campaigns but even those never used fail is in a negative way. Even in the Presidential debates both President Obama and Mitt Romney complimented each other as good fathers and family men. You Sir or Mam have done the worst thing in Frankfort political history, you used a spouse and children to help your candidate win. Guess what, your candidate is no longer my candidate!!!