Battle Over Fate of Recreation Center

I just finished reading your column “Then Whose Back Yard?” (Dianne Klein, March 28) and feel completely frustrated.

As a member of the Rec Centers of Mission Viejo and a resident of the Sierra Rec Center neighborhood, I feel totally misrepresented by your editorializing.

Most of the families I know who oppose the sale of the Sierra Rec Center want the site kept as a recreation center. We use it. Our children ride their bikes or walk to the center. None of us knew of the “attempt for years” to sell the site. We always felt the site would be purchased by the city or somehow otherwise preserved for recreational use if the Mission Viejo Co. ever tried to let go of it. We were never informed of the immediate sale of the center. In fact, we just recently completed city recreation surveys in which we were asked whether the city should purchase the centers.

As members and citizens, we certainly have the right to speak out about the loss of a neighborhood facility that we assumed would be available for our use as long as we live here. We bought a home in this neighborhood to be near our school, recreation center and church.

Yes, we will do all that we can to save the recreation center. I attended the council meeting you referred to as “contentious.” I didn’t see any emotional, financial, legal or physical violence. Just a lot of concerned residents responsibly approaching City Council and dispersing quietly once they were informed the city would listen.

Please check deeper into your story before you throw us all into a previously written script.

Judy Williams,

Mission Viejo