Mon, May 12 2008
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Published May 06, 2008 04:40 pm - A youth baseball league that was granted a lease that provides free use of the city-owned Bassman Field is charging organizers of Joplin’s Boomtown Days festival $2,400 to use the field for the event. Baseball lease to cost taxpayers w/ Joplin & JYBO corespondents exchanged By Debby Woodin dwoodin@joplinglobe.com A youth baseball league that was granted a lease that provides free use of the city-owned Bassman Field is charging organizers of Joplin’s Boomtown Days festival $2,400 to use the field for the event. The deal will end up costing taxpayers because the city staff and the City Council said they would try to make up the cost to Boomtown Days, citing a snafu in the ball field not having been reserved for the festival or excluded for the festival weekend from the league’s lease. The City Council in March approved a lease presented by Jerry Calvin, parks and recreation director, that gives the Joplin Youth Baseball Organization use of Bassman Field on Tuesdays through Sundays through June, and Ewert Field for April. Under the lease agreement, the city waives a $30-per-night fee for use of the field and a $10 fee for use of lights if the league keeps the field mowed, cleaned and maintained. Softball players last month presented petitions with 2,000 signatures citing concerns about the availability of fields, and they complained that the lease had limited the access of adult softball players to the field. They also complained that a permanent baseball mound had been installed, and the gate to the field had been locked contrary to City Council instructions when the lease was discussed. The council learned of the latest complication with the lease at a meeting Monday night. At the meeting, City Manager Mark Rohr presented a proposed agreement to sublease Bassman Field to Boomtown Days for a fee of $2,400, to be paid to the baseball organization. Rohr told council members that the baseball organization was unwilling to allow free use of the field for the festival, saying the group had a tournament scheduled that weekend and would lose money by canceling the tournament. Kim Vann of the Joplin Area of Chamber of Commerce said Tuesday that Boomtown Days organizers were notified recently by the city staff that the field would not be available for festival use June 6-8 because it had been leased to the Joplin Youth Baseball Organization through June. Vann said festival planners thought that Landreth Park, including Bassman Field, had been reserved the week after last year’s festival for this year’s event. “Joplin is a full partner in the festival and provided the space,” Vann said of the usual arrangements for the festival. “We communicate the days with the parks department, and they take care of the necessary arrangements on their end.” Calvin, the parks and recreation director, said his department did not reserve the ball field because it had not been used the previous year. “All we know is they did not use it last year, and since they did not use it, (a parks employee) reserved the amphitheater and the shelters and grounds and parking they normally use,” Calvin said. “Then in February and March, when we were approached about the lease, since we aren’t aware the field was needed, I just know that for whatever reason we didn’t have Bassman down for Boomtown. As far as we knew, those dates were available, so those dates were included in the (baseball) lease agreement.” 
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