Well this time we go back to the Recreation Department. Ah yes, that grand mess of a department. Now we go back about 5-6 years when I was a little league baseball coach with the C.S.R.A. League. I’m very proud of the time I spent coaching LL Baseball and our team was fotunate to win the 3 League Championship one of those years.
My issue isn’t so much with C.S.R.A but with just how pandered the leagues are by the Town Recreation Department. You see as a father I would take my kids to different town parks and we would practice the usual catching, throwing, hitting and the like. But I noticed every time we got a few kids together to have some fun, along came a CSRA team and we would be thrown off the diamonds. One time the arguement got so bad over this, the police were called.
Here is what is happening in this town when dealing with Little League Organizations. The organizations are allowed to rent town parks for an entire season for one dollar. That’s right, one buck! So if you live in the neighborhood of the ball park and you want to play ball with your kids you must yeild the field to a LL Teams should they show up. Now let me remind you that the LL Season begins in late April-early May till August and sometimes even September.
So what that means is the residents ,who pay for these parks in their neighborhood, don’t get to utilize them in the evening and on weekends. Is this what we pay our taxes for? So a private organizations can over run our parks, for next to nothing, and we get left out in the cold.
Of course their is the argument that the kids on the teams are from our town so they have every right to use them. I say, yes you’re right but as a former coach I can tell you, absolutely, that only half the kids on most teams are from Hamburg. So what is the solution?
I really think that these organizations shouldn’t be given a blank reservation for all our diamonds at any town park. I think they should have to reserve these parks for specific dates and times. I know that makes the organization have to become organized and they can’t run it half assed as in the past, but the residents should be able to have just as much access without the worry of being thrown off. I also think that the LL Organizations should be required to mail out flyers to the residents in the neighborhoods they play at, to inform the residents of when their park is going to be used and when available to the neighborhood.
This is a very touchy issue and I respect both sides of it, but in the end the parks belong to the residents not the LL Organizations. I also think that the fee should be raised significantly. A dollar for a whole summer is outragious. If you or I want to rent the park and pavillion for 1 day we pay $30 – $40. I can say for a fact that these LL Organizations require the player to pay $50 – $100 a season to join, then they hold fundraisers all season long. So where does all that money get spent? We’re talking thousands of dollars here and I will testify that very little if any goes back into the teams and equiptment. Yes they provide a t-shirt with a team logo on it but that can’t cost more than $5 when bought in bulk. So where is it spent?
The town mows the grass, grates the diamonds and repairs any deficiencies and vandalism, so what are the leagues spending that money on? Beats me!
Anyway this issue needs a serious look and it needs it soon.
As a coach, I would think you would understand the difficulty of trying to schedule practices. Early in the year you should know the difficulty of trying to find time and locations to practice. Adding rental costs to organizations will only add costs to the parents. It sounds to me that you have a specific issue with CSRA. I’m assuming you are harboring some past issue. Be a man and contact the board (Bob Fisher) directly. They meet once a month and will open the books to you. I haven’t seen you at any of the meetings. Thanks.
No, my issue is with the way the town sells our playgrounds off to private organizations for one dollar a year and then they tell the taxpayers tuff shit, stay off the field.