To the Editor:
I was proud of the Voorheesville Village Board for acquiring “Tork’s Hill” a few years back and restoring the public sledding hill.

It makes me smile every time I drive by and see the kids enjoying themselves. I have fond memories of our young children meeting their friends there on winter weekends.

I was surprised to see construction underway of a parking area at the bottom of the sledding hill.

Then I saw the boulders. You cannot help but see the out-of-place giant rocks.

“Let’s put large boulders at the bottom of the children’s sledding hill!”

Were there no second thoughts about that idea?

The village, in my opinion, has just exposed itself and the taxpayers to a future lawsuit.

It does not take much of an imagination that under the right conditions a sled or toboggan might hit the boulders. In the world of personal-injury lawyers, the possibility of a future calamity at the bottom of the hill is a “foreseeable risk of injury.”

Worse yet, why expose the children to this risk?

Was the village attorney consulted on this decision?

Was the liability insurance company consulted?

The large elementary-school parking lot is directly across the street from Tork’s Hill. A crosswalk connecting the parking lot to the sidewalk along the sledding hill has been painted but, unlike the rest of the village, no signs have been erected to warn drivers of that crosswalk. New signs there should be a priority.

It would be a shame for good intentions to go so badly awry.

And a wonderful asset of the village to be lost to future residents.

Bernard Melewski, Esq.

Guilderland