I am writing this letter to bring awareness to a serious concern in our county. The Recreation Department of Fayette County wants the commissioners of our county to pass a procedures draft that will have a negative financial effect on current recreational sports programs in this county.

Through this proposed document the Recreation Department will take needed money from the kids and our youth programs. It is confusing to me why this is being requested and where our current tax money is spent and how it is managed.

I have personally attended several meetings over the past two months. I have presented many facts and identified the impact of such changes to the current recreational programs. My thoughts and suggestions have been echoed by others in attendance also.

The commissioners have always responded to us the same way: “We will take it into consideration” has been their response. Nothing official has been presented back to us as follow-up to our concerns. This seems to be a very one-sided approach to a very delicate situation.

The new document has identified cost increases for both our recreational programs and tournament play at our parks. The first fee that has been proposed is called an impact fee. This fee is paid by every child that resides in the county or outside of it. The proposed fees will increase the current charges by $5 to $15 per child accordingly. This is for kids that sign up for all sports.

This increase, during a down economic period, seems to be harsh, no matter how much it is. This increase will surely prevent families from enrolling their children into our organized sports.

We have asked where this money will go. Will it go back to the parks it came from? Or does the money go back to the Recreation Department to support their salaries? No explanation or detail has been provided. To me we are being taxed twice.

The second area that new fees have been proposed is for tournaments at our county parks. This is the area that is the most concerning. Let’s talk about the Rec. Department sending money to other counties.

At the McCurry Park softball complex we have about 14 softball tournaments a year. These tournaments help us, the park board, pay our operational bills. These tournaments are supported by our board members and parents of the players from our park.

These are all volunteers. No assistance or resources from the county are used or offered.

In 2008 the softball board at McCurry Park, which I am the president of, earned enough money to buy and pay for needed equipment, field maintenance material and a brand new chain link batting cage with no financial support from the county.

We also use this money to pay for the umpires for the season ourselves. This alone is a very large expense.

We cannot maintain these associated costs if we do not maintain the number of tournaments we have. This system has been in place for many years. Now the Rec. Department says that we can no longer run the park this way going forward, although it has proven to be self-sufficient.

We are no longer able to rent the fields ourselves (the board) now the Rec. Dept. said that the tournaments have to go through their office and new, higher fees will go to them instead of the park. But the county does not want to work for this money.

Recently I had a tournament director call and ask for some dates in March of 2009. Following these new proposed procedures, he was advised by the Rec. Department that the new fee was $400 a day per field.

The tournament directors (independent tournament promoters) are not willing to pay this kind of fee. They cannot afford to. They can go to Clayton and other counties and run their programs for less as they have in the past with us.

We have been notified by these promoters that we will be losing some of these tournaments for next year because of the information they received from our county.

These tournaments are important to our Fayette County businesses also, very important. These tournaments generate local revenues for our gas stations, hotels and restaurants. Many families also go shopping at our many retail outlets during their down time between games and in the evenings. Our sporting goods stores also see increased revenues as teams frequent them before and during the tournaments to maintain equipment and personal items. Again, this is important revenue for these small and large businesses in our economy today.

The proposed changes and excessive fees will eliminate these revenue streams for both the park and our local businesses when the promoters move their tournaments to a friendlier environment.

These are important facts that have been presented to the commissioners and Rec. Department with little response except, “We will take this into consideration.”

The little money that the tournament people make is not worth all the money that this county will lose due to the people not coming to tournaments.

The Rec. Department has advised us that no one should make money from the parks. But this is two-sided, and they do support and hire individuals to do so. There are other sports in this county that pay their coaches a lot of money to coach (soccer). The coaches that get pay are using county fields but the Rec. Dept. turns its head and says that’s OK.

So to me, I think what is good for one sport should be good for all. There are many people that make a small profit off of county property. The scorekeepers are paid for the church league. The umpires are paid per game. All sports have vendors that help and support through the season. We also hire and teach kids how to work in the concession stands and pay them. This improves their people skills, basic communication skills and introduces them to business skills.

Currently, many people make money off of county property, so why can’t we continue to manage our softball tournaments the way we have in the past without interference or complication from the county?

In Griffin, they imposed the same control by their Rec. Department as ours is trying to do now. Now, no one plays at that park, not even the recreational teams.

We need the help of the community to prevent these new guidelines. If you are a travel ball parent, a parent of a ballplayer or a business owner in Fayette County, please call your county commissioners and tell them you do not agree with this new proposal and decision.

Jimmy Cleghorn

FCYSA President

james@gaattitudes.com

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