As budgets tighten, the city of Barnwell has begun charging the BBA for the use of Lemon Park to help recover some of its expenses.
In late December, Will Kearse, president of the Barnwell Baseball Association, and Emily Randell, parks and recreation director for the city of Barnwell, signed an agreement, which includes a new $5,000 rental fee for the BBA’s use of Lemon Park.
For more than 20 years, the BBA has been holding a baseball season at Lemon Park from March to June each year for children around the county, and the city has taken care of the upkeep of the park.
“Due to budget cuts and the maintenance costs of Lemon Park, the city found it necessary to start charging the BBA this year,” Randell said. “The city spends approximately $19,000 in direct costs for the BBA to hold their season at Lemon Park. The $5,000 that we will charge the BBA will assist in offsetting these direct costs.”
The BBA began because “the city didn’t have the funding to run it,” Kearse said. Twelve board members, along with a number of benefactors, volunteer their time and resources to provide local youth with a baseball program.
“This is the first year we have had to pay to use the park and to chalk the fields for games,” Kearse said. “We discussed this thing probably from July to December. We went ahead and agreed to the last terms.”
Some terms of the agreement include no BBA games on Wednesdays, all games concluded by 9:30 p.m. and the fields to be lined by the BBA on Tuesdays and Fridays in addition to the flat fee of $5,000 and practice fees.
“The city determined the charge based on the costs that the city incurs each year to host BBA games at Lemon Park,” Randell said. “These costs include preparation of fields each day, staff time, park cleaning and supplies, field supplies, utilities and equipment.”
Last year, a few games were held on Wednesday and some games ran over, but most finished by 9:30 p.m., Kearse said. “We’ll make arrangements to the start time to make sure we’re finished by the curfew.”
If make-up games are necessary, the city “will work with us” as the BBA follows the guidelines of the agreement, he said.
“It does make it harder for us,” Kearse said. “We are a non-profit organization.”
The BBA spends more than $47,000 per season and raises much of the funds through sponsorship and registration fees.
“We work hard to do all we can with what we have,” Kearse said. “It (the fee) is a bit of a set back, but we’ll do all we can to move forward.”
The fee must be paid by Feb. 29 for the 2012 season.
“It is common practice for parks and recreation departments to charge user groups to use their facilities to help with the upkeep and maintenance of their facilities,” Randell said.
“I do understand them (the city) needing help,” Kearse said. “We came to an agreement we can all live by, and it was amicable.”
The number of games each season depends on the number of children and teams, Kearse said. “The last two years, it’s grown.”
Although the agreement allows for the BBA to charge for residents to attend the games, Kearse said, “No fee will be charged.”
In addition, “I’m not going up on sponsorship fees or registration,” he said.
At this time, the BBA has no plans to do anything different next year; though, “we have been approached with some opportunities,” Kearse said. “I’m going to do what’s best for the kids.”
One of the primary purposes of the BBA is “to make sure we give kids a good program to provide fundamental skills” for baseball and for life, Kearse said.
Registration is scheduled to begin the first full week of February.