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There are few things that can raise a community's ire more than tinkering with youth sports. Members of Wheeling City Council learned that recently when they were caught off-guard over a new policy set forth by the city's Parks and Recreation Department that changed the fee schedule for sponsors at the city ballfields.
Several council members last week questioned City Manager Robert Herron over a new policy concerning sponsors at the city ballfields. The new policy regulates the businesses that can advertise, raises the cost and also requires 20% of all sponsorship fees be returned to the city. The concern from councilors Ty Thorngate, Ben Seidler and Jerry Sklauvonakis is not so much that there's a new policy, but that no one on council was made aware.
"Some of the organizations that I've talked to said that they (currently) charge anywhere between $100 to $150 a year for banners. The Parks and Rec Department is requiring that they move that up to a $300 one-year commitment and $250 a year for a two-year commitment, with 20% of those fees raised going to the city," said Thorngate, who also is a youth baseball coach. "That's kind of where myself and some of these baseball organizations do have issues. I think it's important to note that we're talking about some nonprofits that run on shoestring budgets to begin with."
And it's the leagues, not the city, that are doing the bulk of the work to keep the fields in shape. That's why Thorngate questioned the logic of the city getting a cut.
"Taking 20% from organizations that are already bootstrapped and struggling to get by doesn't make any sense, especially when we just allocated so much ARPA money toward that," he said.
City Manager Robert Herron said the policy was revised to have standardized regulations at all city ballfields. He also noted the funds going to the city will help create a long-term maintenance fund.
"The 20% was going to be set aside specifically … to have a long-term maintenance pool of money going forward that could build over time for those fields for things that they may want -- like dugout improvements, fence improvements, etc. So I will talk to the recreation director and relay these concerns to her," he said.
Youth sports hold a special place in our communities, and changing how they operate without clear communication leads to distrust. City leaders would be wise to keep that in mind as this issue moves forward.