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Budget Cuts Place Park Burdens On Youth Teams
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Published: May 16, 2008
The Brandon Leaguerettes, a slow-pitch softball league, learned late last year that Hillsborough County's parks department would no longer maintain their fields or pay for tournaments.
Suddenly the 200-player league was on its own when it came to mowing the grass, dragging the infield, chalking baselines and paying umpires. The Leaguerettes had to raise registration fees from $100 to $135 to cover the new costs.
"We only raised it $35, but to someone that's financially needy, $35 can be a lot," said Kim Stubbs, a league board member. "Some of these single parents have more than one daughter."
Like Stubbs, thousands of other Hillsborough County parents are feeling the effects of the county's decision to slash the parks budget by 10 percent.
The move essentially put parks maintenance and scheduling in the hands of the parks' biggest users, often Little League and kids soccer teams. As a result, leagues are raising fees for players, charging other leagues to use the fields and limiting when the public can use recreational facilities.
With the county facing another $87 million in budget cuts related to Amendment 1 and millions more from declining property taxes, the changes are likely just the start. Maintenance may be reduced further, new parks almost surely will be delayed, and fees could be charged for programs that are now free.
"It's going to be lean times for a long time around here," said Parks Director Mark Thornton. "The public is going to notice."
Leagues Assume Burden
Since its creation in 1965, the Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department has amassed more than 1,125 acres of parks with athletic fields and spent hundreds of millions of dollars on construction at those parks. From 2002 to 2006, the department spent $82 million on buildings, ball fields and other capital projects.
As long as the building boom continued and property tax collections increased, the county was able to maintain its expanding park empire. But escalating property values also spurred a public outcry for tax relief. Last year, the state Legislature obliged with a property tax rollback that forced Hillsborough County to slash its budget by $56 million.
Thornton had to cancel plans to add 37 new maintenance employees, a move that saved $1.7 million. But the 17 remaining workers could not continue to care for the athletic fields as well as maintain common areas, buildings, trails and roadways. The only answer was to turn over athletic field maintenance to the groups who use them most.
"That's not a direction we wanted to go," Thornton said, "but it was the only choice we had because we had to reduce the budget."
The shift was painful for leagues and parents, many of whom were already struggling to pay for uniforms, equipment and umpires. At larger regional parks, maintenance costs can run $100,000 or more annually.
Hillsborough County United Soccer, a 2,400-member league at Ed Radice Park in northwest Hillsborough, learned in October the county was discontinuing maintenance. The news punched a hole in the league's budget, adopted three months earlier.
"It was a pretty tough pill to swallow in the middle of the budget year," said Hillsborough United officer Eric Simms.
The league had to hire a company to mow and apply herbicides and pesticides to the nine soccer fields. Simms said the soccer club will have to raise fees to pay for the $100,000 to $120,000 in additional costs.
How the leagues deal with the extra costs they're now shouldering for maintenance has caused some conflicts with park users. For example, United Soccer now charges nonleague players a fee to use the fields and has taken over control of scheduling when the fields are used.
Those changes, supported by the parks department, infuriated nonaffiliated players who felt they had a legal right to play at a public park.
Kevin Shelton was so angry about being barred from playing pick up soccer games at Ed Radice that he hired a lawyer to mediate the dispute. After several conversations with park officials, Shelton and his friends were allowed to play when a field is free.
Though the new costs are painful, the shift has given Hillsborough United more control over the fields. The league can now charge national tournaments that want to play at Ed Radice. League officials also can decide when to "rest" fields to give sod time to recover between games.
"It's been bad, but I think it's been more good in terms of now we really are putting an effort into making these fields really nice," Simms said.
Smaller leagues with fewer players are doing the maintenance on their own. The Dover Patriots purchased a used field mower for $3,000 to cut the Bermuda sod on the league's three football fields. Volunteers will also fertilize and apply pesticides to the high-maintenance Bermuda grass.
"If we could afford to just pay someone to do it, we'd do it," said league member Jake Smith. "It's a lot of time just running the organization without all that."
The Brandon Leaguerettes get help with landscape maintenance from three volunteers who live nearby. The three men drag a rolled-up wire fence behind their trucks to smooth out the infields. The league had to hire a mowing company.
Even with the volunteer help, the smaller leagues will have to raise registration fees. Stubbs and Smith worry they may not be able to continue sponsoring low-income kids who can't afford the fees.
"We try to sponsor as many as we can," Stubbs said, "but we have to restrict how many we sponsor because we have to keep the league going."
Fees on the Horizon
On June 4, the County Commission will consider whether to approve the parks department's master plan. Several years in the making, the plan applauds the county's "exceptional accomplishments": 36,000 kids playing youth sports, 58,000 children in after-school programs, and 48,000 acres of conservation lands saved from development.
Yet the plan also says the parks system is "unsustainable" because too many services are offered for free. The department recoups just 2-3 percent of its budget through user fees.
Among the programs the master plan targets for change is the $16 million-a-year out-of-school program. Parents pay nothing to enroll their children in the program, which offers supervised after-school recreation activities. During the summer, the program costs just $50 for a wide array of programs from arts and crafts to computers.
"The (master) plan says you can't sustain your out-of-school program the way it is," Thornton said. "You have to reduce the program, charge user fees or find partners."
In a recent e-mail to employees, Thornton said ending the program or scaling it back is not an option. The other options recommended by the plan are to raise fees or partner with other organizations to run the program using county facilities. Thornton said he is talking to the county school board and the YMCA about such a partnership.
The consultants also criticized the department for failing to take advantage of money-making opportunities. Among the plan's suggestions: Build "revenue producing facilities."
To Thornton, that means building a 24-field soccer complex that could host national and regional tournaments. Soccer moms and dads, including those from Hillsborough County, will travel out-of-state to watch their kids play, he said. The tournaments would generate money to maintain the fields used by local athletic clubs.
County Commissioner Jim Norman used the same rationale last year when he promoted construction of a $40 million sports complex near Plant City called Championship Park. The project never gained public support because of its hefty price tag, and Norman's fellow commissioners soundly rejected it.
But Norman says the county still needs some type of tournament-friendly sports complex. He recently talked to Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio about using city-owned land for such a park near Interstate 4 and McIntosh Road. The mayor was cool to the idea and referred the issue to her parks department directors.
Norman said the talks with Iorio were not a veiled attempt to resurrect Championship Park, which would have included a 25,000-seat stadium. Something less grandiose that could generate big money, however, would help answer how the county can maintain hundreds of athletic fields, he said.
"You've got millions of dollars worth of assets out there, and with the cuts incurred, you've got no way to maintain them," Norman said. "How long is this going to last before our inventory of fields deteriorates and it's unsafe for our kids?"
Even if the County Commission approves the idea, a money-making sports complex is years off. Until then, athletic leagues will have to find ways to keep the fields in shape.
Some league officers see their new responsibilities as a way to foster a spirit of cooperation. For instance, at Shimberg Park, near Hanley Road and Waters Avenue, the league worked out agreements in which groups that regularly use the park will help with painting, shoveling or other chores in return for a reduced fee to use the fields.
"What's wrong with a little sweat equity?" asked Dave Dudash, a Shimberg board member. "I think the byproduct of this is we get a little bit of community."
Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303 or msalinero@tampatrib.com
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