Correction: An earlier version of this article had an incorrect amount for the district’s field-use fee. It was actually $191.25 per field per day, not $129 per field per day. That information has now been corrected and we deeply regret the error.
Some members of Agassiz’s two-pitch league are concerned about the league’s future, after finding fee increases last season were larger than expected.
League organizer Deanne Edmondson spoke at council Monday (March 25) about her concerns on the change in fee structure before three of the five council members and 30 audience members.
“We foresee success in the league for many years to come,” Edmondson said about the two-pitch league, which has been organizing adult baseball games and tournaments in the district for nearly 40 years.
But “there are some concerns that have (arisen) recently that have us questioning the path of our league’s future.”
In the past, Edmondson said, the league had paid $10 an hour for the use of the district’s baseball diamonds, located in Centennial Park. This format has worked well for the league’s weekend tournaments, as not all of the five diamonds are used all day.
But at the end of the 2018 season, Edmondson was shocked: the fees had increased to $191.25 per field per day.
“We were not given any notice of this price increase, or even an explanation,” she said, noting that the last price increase was 10 cents an hour.
Edmondson took her concerns to district director of community services and projects Jennifer Thornton, who reduced the fees for 2018 because the league felt there wasn’t enough notice for the increase. Edmondson said Thornton told her the fees would be increasing the following season.
“The bottom line: we don’t agree with this increase of fees,” she said. She wanted to know why the fees had increased and what the league would be getting in return.
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“We’ve had our share of issues with maintenance issues,” Edmondson said. “The ball field conditions have not been ideal for the most part … and to top it off our players end up lining the field with chalk.
“If we already pay over 100 per cent of a field increase for fields that were merely handed over to the District of Kent from the Agassiz Agriculture Association, these are some of the issues that must be addressed.”
Thornton was not present at Monday’s council meeting, and couldn’t provide background on why the fees had increased so significantly. However, district staff told the Agassiz Harrison Observer Tuesday that Kent council had updated its Parks and Recreation Fees and Charges bylaw in 2013 to have local adult groups pay 100 per cent of the recoverable costs.
“For what it might cost to prep the field or lighting or anything like that … that’s supposed to be calculated and costed out,” Clair Lee, director of corporate services, said.
“The rate is $10 … per field for their regular play, but for tournaments, where they want exclusive use of all the fields, it’s a different rate,” she added.
Lee could not say exactly why it had taken so long for the league’s fees to catch up with the updated bylaw, but said that “sometimes it takes a little bit of time for the message to kind of filter down the line.”
She wasn’t sure if there were conversations with the two-pitch league about the fee increase before 2018.
After Edmondson’s delegation, council had an opportunity to comment on her concerns. As Thornton was away, the three council members present weren’t able to get detailed information on the fee increases. (Mayor Sylvia Pranger and councillor Stan Watchorn were not present at the meeting; councillors Duane Post, Susan Spaeti and Kerstin Schwichtenberg were.)
“Myself and Kerstin and Susan, all of us have played two-pitch,” Post said in his role as acting-mayor. “We recognize that it’s been in the community for a long time, and we want to see it continue in the community for a long time.
“We’ll get back to you as soon as we can with some answers, and hopefully we can all move ahead in a positive way.”
grace.kennedy@ahobserver.com
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