Collect prime rate for Abbe Center

Prospect Meadows Ball Fields has received state and local funding, grants, loans and private donations. Marion will provide up to $750,000 funding for this project, a $9.4 million complex. How marvelous.

Abbe Center, Marion, has been defunded and will close its doors Sept. 30. How devastating.

When the Abbe Center building is vacated, it will leave a structure prime for Prospect Meadows administrative offices, banquet/party rooms for tournament teams, locker room space, and concessions staging/storage space. My hope is the building won't be gifted or bargain basement priced to Prospect Meadows, rather priced and sold as the prime property it is. I know Abbe Center will be portrayed as outdated, to be repurposed.

The laughter, cheers, excitement, interactions and the “Miracle Field” provided by the ball fields complex might have been the best medicine Abbe Center residents could have received. How sad.

Bert Graham

Marion