Text of Article
A Marathon Campaign
Gary Carr talks about his years of
crusading for an improved track
at Hammond Middle School.
By Michael Lee Pope Gazette Packet
A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Gary Carr has lived in Alex since 1986. He’s an electroneurodiagnostictechnologist at the Alexandria Professional Building,where his ninth-floor office looks down at Hammond Middle School. Since 2002, Carr has advocated for improving the track facilities at meetings of the City Council, School Board, Planning Commission and Park and Recreation Commission.
What happened to the track at Hammond when the school system renovated the building in ’02?
The original track at Hammond was from when the school had been a high school, so it had a six-lane 400 meter track. Of course, it had eroded over time, but it was still a good facility. But then the renovation happened, the track was used as a staging area. To my bewilderment, when the renovation was finished they put an elementary school playground there. Essentially the track was replaced by a meandering path. And what I’ve been able to observe from my vantage point at the Alexandria Professional Building is that the entire field floods every time it rains. The
field turns into a muddy mess. So I started to speak out about it, and I thought it was going to be kind of an easy thing — that I would talk about it a few times and they would fix it and that
would be that.
What happened?
Since I’ve been speaking out about this issue, the city has fixed the field at Fort Ward and
they’ve fixed the field at Minnie Howard — all to the neglect of the field at Hammond. That’s
when I came to the realization that nobody was really speaking out about this issue, and I
felt this was a really important issue from the children’s standpoint. Because I work in the
medical field, my argument became interwoven with the childhood obesity epidemic.
There’s no doubt about the need for this track at Hammond. So my crusade became
restoring the track at Hammond in an effort to battle childhood obesity and the sedentary
lifestyle.
Why is this needed?
There’s an immediate need at Hammond because of the condition of the field. Every time it
rains, the field floods and it’s unusable to a thousand kids. The need at Hammond is really
significant, and I don’t understand why nobody seems to care about it. So that’s what really
got me riled up because I’ve seen other projects advance but nobody is really advocating for
the kids at Hammond.
You’ve been speaking out about this for years and yet nothing has happened. Why do you think that’s the case?
I really don’t know to be honest, but I find it curious that nothing has happened because this affects so many children. But the PTA Council is not talking about it. I honestly don’t get
it why nobody seems to care about this because the need is so apparent. It’s one of those
things that’s invisible in plain sight. I’ve tried every argument I can think of.
When do you think this will be resolved?
Based on the current economic conditions, I’m not optimistic to tell you the truth. I think this issue is moving forward, but it’s not moving very fast. It’s possible this will get fixed when the economy gets better. But when will that be?
Are you going to keep speaking out about this?
I’ve decided to stop on four different occasions, and I even publicly announced that I was
going to stop speaking about this. But I’ve become committed to seeing this through. I
have made this my public service. I believe this is something I can make a strong case for, and
it’s something that will have a very positive effect. The discipline that’s required to run is
exactly what kids need today.
