To the Editor:

Guilderland town Supervisor Peter Barber with town board cooperation allowed Albany County Executive Dan McCoy and MVP Health Care to work out a deal to take a section of Tawasentha Park to advertise MVP Health Care through park equipment as (take your pick) a “donation,” “sponsorship,” “relationship” [“First outdoor Fitness Court in state to open at Tawasentha Park,” The Altamont Enterprise, May 22, 2023].

Other parks in Albany County offer community exercise equipment at parks without advertisements. 

A few weeks ago, Peter Barber and the town board authorized funds for a sports association using the town park to construct a build at DiCaprio Park for their group. (If you walked there now you will have less park to use.)[“Board hears plea for accessible parks as it releases $75K for box lacrosse field,” The Altamont Enterprise, Nov. 27, 2024]

Of course, children with disabilities were not provided any playground equipment at any park over these interest groups. Yet, all of us should pay attention to the power of special interests taking over our town.

For example, our town parks are public spaces that should allow our eyes and senses to escape the failure of the town to enforce signage codes ….

Private-business advertising at town parks threatens everyone’s accessibility and could turn our parks into profit-driven ventures excluding the town residents, the very people our parks were meant for.  Guilderland deserves better.

Christine Duffy

Guilderland

Editor’s note: As The Enterprise reported earlier, in November 2021, when Albany County awarded naming rights for its arena to MVP Health Care, originally Mohawk Valley Physicians Health Plan, the contract included an annual $1.4 million over five years for the Innovation Fund that is to support community projects like the fitness facility. The facility was installed by the National Fitness Campaign, a for-profit wellness consulting firm supported by a consortium of health-insurance companies, including MVP, which has a goal of building 5,000 outdoor fitness courts across the nation by 2030.