Comparing Boys’, Girls’ Playing Fields

* Re “Another Dirt Lot With No Snack Shack,” May 13.

While we fully concur that the girls of the West Valley Girls Softball league fully deserve a facility of their own to call home, I must take exception to the reference to our Westhills PONY baseball program and our facilities in your coverage of their dispute with the city of LA. . . . When Westhills Baseball began over 30 years ago, we were given nothing but a permit to a vacant lot covered with rocks and weeds. The facility as it now exists is the result of thousands of volunteer man-hours of our parents and hundreds of thousands of dollars raised by our league. We never received one dime from the city to develop our ball fields. During the four years ended Aug. 31, 1999, we had spent over $423,000 in improving and maintaining the facility, all funds generated by our parents through various fund-raising efforts. Annual maintenance costs tens of thousands of dollars, all funded by our parents.

West Valley Girls Softball certainly deserves every opportunity to build a permanent home for themselves, and we at Westhills Baseball support their cause. But it is unfair to imply that our league was given a turnkey, pristine facility by the city when in fact that is not the case.

KENNETH BRANDT

Treasurer, Westhills Baseball Inc.

Woodland Hills