By Derek Spellman
dspellman@joplinglobe.com
NEOSHO, Mo. — A formal proposal that would transfer control of the summer baseball and softball programs from the city of Neosho to the local YMCA will come before the City Council next week, officials said Tuesday night.
Todd Banes, director of parks and recreation, told members of the department’s advisory board that a lease agreement with the Freeman Southwest Family YMCA would go to the council on March 16. The agreement would grant the organization the use of the city’s five ball fields and concessions at a fee of $1 per year, board members said.
“They’re ready to run; they just need the fields,” Rhonda Warren, a member of the advisory board, said after Tuesday night’s meeting.
The advisory panel had endorsed the transfer in January, with the final decision to be made by the council. The board received an update on the transfer Tuesday night.
Mayor Jeff Werneke said in a telephone interview that he had not seen the proposed lease agreement, but he did not foresee any problems with the measure being passed by the council next week.
“I think most everyone on the council feels it’s a positive direction for the program to move in,” Werneke said.
Jenny Holweger, executive director of the Neosho YMCA, told the parks advisory board on Tuesday that the pending transfer is “moving along pretty well.” The organization has conducted informational meetings about the transfer. Sign-ups are to start April 17, and the season is to start in May.
The city last season charged $25 per child.
Holweger has estimated that the YMCA’s cost would be in the same range after factoring in revenue from concessions and sponsorships to be secured. She said after Tuesday’s meeting that the lease agreement with the city needs to be approved before the organization can start pursuing sponsorships.
In mid-January, then-City Manager Jan Blase announced that budget cuts would force the city to divest itself of the summer youth baseball and softball programs — before plans were in place for another organization to assume those programs. The programs affect about 1,000 youngsters. Blase had said passing the programs off would save the city about $50,000 annually.
The city had approached an embryonic parents organization about taking over the programs. The advisory board and others then contacted the YMCA because of concerns about whether the parents organization could be up and running in time for the next season.
The City Council place Blase on paid suspension Jan. 26, pending a final vote to fire him, citing a lack of confidence in his ability to continue discharging his duties effectively. The council voted to fire him on Feb. 22.
Blase had acknowledged last year that the city’s general fund had borrowed from earmarked money, including a state loan for new airplane hangars and the hotel and motel tax fund, to finance the city’s general operations. He and former Finance Director Bob Blackwood each faces a misdemeanor charge of official misconduct over the lending of the hotel-motel tax money to the general fund.
