I went to the city council meeting last night for the hell of it. The only issue that generated debate was a proposal to lower or eliminate the fees for the use of Horlick Field by a mostly adult baseball team.
Apparently, the actual cost of maintaining Horlick Field has been estimated, by the city parks department, to be $168 per game. During last years budget wrangling, it was decided that adult teams would pay $80 per game (lights extra) and that junior teams would play for free. The $80 was a steep increase from previous years.
The initial proposal to waive or reduce the fee for one team only was, thankfully, shot down, but only by a narrow majority. And three Democrats, Mayor Becker, QA Shakoor, and Alderman Shields offered the most coherent arguments in favor of keeping a standard fee for all adult teams.
In the end, I believe they reduced the fee across the board to $30 per team, so you, dear reader, have just agreed to subsidize baseball even more than you were before.
On a related note, I wish someone had asked why it costs $168 per game to line the fields and cut the grass. I suspect that jobs like those could be put out for bid and considerable savings could be had.
Denis,
ReplyDeleteI think the bigger question is if the Council set the fees at 'x', why were they being lowered, for some orginizations, without the Council's knowledge.
Also, I find it odd that these three democrates would vote to subsidize most other sport/cultural activities in the city,(such as communities centers) but they are against subsidies for baseball. Why, because it is a boring sport, it is indeed, but that is no reason not to subsidize it being played.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong, I don't want to pay for other people to play baseball either, I just think the arguements you found coherent rang hollow. I would like to know, as the Mayor asked, how many of these players live in the city. I certainly don't want to subsidize non-residents.
I don't know about ringing hollow anon, but I hope that the same thinking would apply to other sports as well. Re the question of residency, it is a good one. When I used to play softball, non city players had to pay extra. Why that doesn't apply to baseball I don't know.
ReplyDeleteLet me geuss, you played shortstop.J/K
ReplyDeleteQ.A Shakoor is NOT a Democrat. He never has been. Just ask him and he'll tell you. He chooses to be independent.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that anon. I will ask him next time I see him.
ReplyDelete