Opinion: Vote "Yes" For Sewataro Land

The following was submitted as a letter to the editor by Sudbury resident Joy Aldrich. If you would like to submit a letter to the editor, email samantha.mercado@patch.com.

I am voting YES on Sewataro on June 4th, and I encourage you to do the same. Here is why.

Full disclosure: my daughter has attended Sewataro for three summers. As she is only eight, we would love for it to continue as is. Here’s the thing, though—it won’t. It can’t continue exactly as it has because the management will be different. Because even though the sale includes everything a camp operator would need to get off to a running successful start, including all the physical property—canoes, kayaks, (12 paddle boards!), art and music studios, ziplines, rock wall, ropes course, plus all the intellectual property—the Sewataro name and branding, the domain name and even client lists, any camp operator will put their own stamp on it. It will be different. As Sewataro owner Mark Taylor said at the Town meeting on May 7th, “Change is coming.”

But that’s okay!

I’ve heard it called an “elite camp.” Personally, I don’t think you can put a price on the values my daughter has learned there—teamwork, problem-solving skills, courage, independence, and confidence. But let’s accept that many camps will promote those same values. What we have here is an OPPORTUNITY. If it was an expensive camp before, once we as a Town own it, we can pare down some aspects to make it more affordable. Working parents need a place for their kids to go in the summer. We can create a safe, enriching, fun place for our kids to spend summer days, while building friendships, absorbing values and broadening their horizons. All while in the shade instead of the blazing hot sun of Haskell Field.

Beyond school-age kids, however, this property potentially has something for everyone. Park & Rec programs for seniors, for preschoolers, a swimming pond (7-year waitlists on pools suggest there is a need), 4th of July picnics, fireworks, possibly even a dog park.

Do we know this for sure? No! That’s why it’s an OPPORTUNITY. The Town officials have done their due diligence to determine as much as can be known, as was presented at the Town meeting on May 7th. Town Manager Melissa Rodrigues has expressed that it can be a condition of the RFP for a camp operator that residents have access to facilities on evenings after 3:30 p.m., weekends, and holidays like Memorial Day, Labor Day, and the 4th of July. In his presentation at the Town Meeting on May 7th, Sewataro owner Mark Taylor stated one reason the Town is their preferred buyer, was “Should the Town fail to run it as a camp, it would remain a park.” A park is the worst possible outcome, if we vote Yes. One possible better outcome is a camp that creates revenue for the Town to offset expenses. Another potential outcome is using space in existing buildings at Sewataro for Park and Rec programs, reducing the scope of the much-needed Fairbanks renovation, thereby speeding up the opening of a new senior center.

Owner Mark Taylor told the Metrowest Daily News on May 2nd that the Town of Sudbury’s offer was not the highest bid they received. Developers want it. We are going to feel the cost either way, either $139 the first year, and less each year after that, for a prime area we all can enjoy, or through raised taxes to cover additional school students that development will bring.

I’m not voting Yes on June 4th because I hope Camp Sewataro operates for a few more years for my kids. I’m voting Yes because the worst possible outcome being a park is an outcome I can live with, and I encourage you to do the same.

“The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.” ― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

- Joy Aldrich