Ball field maintenance issues raise questions

Questions about who pays for what at Kalispell’s leased public lands have resurfaced with the Lakers baseball club asking the city to reimburse the club for $17,189 worth of work done at its two ball fields.

Rather than just vote on cutting a check, officials decided to look at how the request fits the Kalispell Legion Baseball Association’s 1-year-old lease and how that matches up with other arrangements the city has.

“As we have more of these public-private partnerships, which is what this is — what Kidsports is — they need to be equitable,” Kalispell City Council member Tim Kluesner said during a work session on the request.

Such partnerships include agreements with the Lakers, Kalispell Golf Association, Flathead Valley Hockey Association and youth sports groups under the Kidsports umbrella. 

All of the groups have differing missions, resources and arrangements with the city. It could be challenging to not only make such relationships equal but also assess their equality in the first place. That will be the focus of a second city council work session on Monday.

The $17,189 the Lakers are asking to be paid for fertilizer and weed killer, bleacher repairs, backstop construction and soil conditioner and grading services for the dirt infields.

“We had to do major surgery on the fields. It was beyond regular maintenance,” baseball association President Marc Liechti told the council. “Without the repairs, we’re not sure we could keep having tournaments and inviting teams.”

BUT IT'S NOT clear how the request fits a 20-year lease the Lakers and Kalispell City Council agreed to in December 2011.

The Lakers pay 1 percent of their gross revenues to the city each year — about $900 — or supply an equal amount of labor or materials to maintain or improve the city-owned property. In turn, Kalispell provides water, sewer and electricity; mows, waters and maintains grass areas; cares for roadways, parking lots and paths; and repairs and winterizes the water system.

With just 30 players, it’s a big challenge for parents, volunteers and sponsors to raise enough money to keep the traveling team going, Liechti said. The club raised about $90,000 and spent $106,000 last year, according to city records.

“We’re behind on this year’s startup financially, and anything will help us get on better footing,” Liechti told the council, adding that help was offered in the past. “We would do concrete work, put in new scoreboards, fix things that fall apart, and we would turn in receipts and get reimbursed. For the last three years we have gotten nothing.”

Kalispell Parks and Recreation Director Mike Baker said tight money is a sign of the times. That goes for the city, for its Parks and Recreation Department and for sports groups and parents and sponsors. 

“Dollars are not going as far as they used to and it’s getting harder and harder to provide an acceptable level of service. It’s tough to keep up with what we’ve been doing,” Baker said.

 COUNCIL members seemed to have differing views of the Lakers’ request at the last work session. 

Mayor Tammi Fisher noted that Kalispell spends $4,793 per field to maintain the two fields the Lakers use. That’s less than the $5,987 per field Kalispell spends to maintain 30 fields at Kidsports.

“I would support some parity on what the city spends at Kidsports per ball field, to be consistent with what it spends on these as well,” Fisher said. She also questioned whether the baseball club is paying for any work that city crews should be doing, which the club could be reimbursed for.

Council member Bob Hafferman saw the request another way. 

“The problem I have is this exceeds what we are doing with Kidsports and I think everything should be done on an equal basis,” he said. “Legion baseball is a damn good program. But we have a lot of good programs and where do you stop?”

Another challenge: There is no agreed-upon lease for Kidsports several months after Kalispell paid $2.3 million to acquire 138 acres of school trust land and the several million dollars of athletic infrastructure Kidsports has built there.

Even with hundreds of participants and parents and an ability to host regional tournaments that bring thousands of people to Kalispell every spring, summer and fall, Kidsports relies on the city to provide about $180,000 a year of budgeted maintenance. 

One proposal would have the nonprofit Kidsports group raise $2.3 million in donations in five years to further develop its athletic complex. That would presumably put more maintenance duties on the city Parks and Recreation Department and possibly cost the city more money, even if the group does start making some sort of annual payment to offset city maintenance costs.

There’s also the unasked question of how Kalispell’s agreements and obligations with sports groups for public land fit in with the needs of several hundred acres of other city park land used by the general public. Compared to the high-maintenance costs of sports fields, the rest of the park system sees annual maintenance of $1,724 per acre, according to city budget documents.

 IF THE Lakers’ request is honored, the council must decide where to pull the money from. Two obvious targets are an already stretched parks and recreation budget and the city’s general fund. Kalispell has a stash of about $1.6 million in general fund reserves, but is trying to build those reserves up to 20 percent of the fund’s annual budget, or about $2 million.

“Looking at next year’s budget, we would not recommend looking at the parks budget for this,” City Manager Doug Russell told the council. “If you want to go out of the general fund, we do have reserves building up. But anything paid out would lower that amount.”

 Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.