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User fees to be charged for city outdoor sports fields

City expects to collect $38,000 through fees for adult and youth organizations to use fields.
Chapple Ball Field
A city baseball diamond at Chapples Park. (tbnewswatch file photograph)

THUNDER BAY – Users of city sports fields will likely have to pay a little more next year.

Thunder Bay city council on Monday night voted in favour of implementing sports field user fees for 19 adult and youth organizations that charge registration and use outdoor city fields, impacting 416 teams and 6,530 players.

The user fees are expected to recoup 40 per cent of the city’s annual operating costs for the fields, which would amount to $38,000.

The implementation of the fees would be included and required to be confirmed in next year’s city budget. The plan would require teams with a six to eight week season paying $100, while teams playing between nine and 15 weeks would pay $300 and a duration longer than 16 weeks would cost $550 per team.

Cory Halvorsen, the city’s manager of parks and open spaces, said administration consulted with the user groups through a survey.

“There are some organizations that expressed concerns with the fees and suggested that there should be not be fees applied to their organizations,” Halvorsen said.

The report from city administration said just five of the organizations completed the survey.

The groups include two adult soccer house leagues, one adult baseball house league, five adult softball house leagues, five youth soccer house leagues, two youth soccer rep teams, one youth football house league, two youth baseball house leagues and one youth softball house league.

The city already charges a rental fee for Fort William Stadium and the new schedule would have the same rate in place at the rebuilt Chapples Park stadium pitch, which is expected to be operational again next year.

Coun. Kristen Oliver (Westfort) asked if the revenue could be directed to field upgrades.

“I just think people would probably see a lot of value if they’re paying the user fee and we’re taking that back and reinvesting it,” Oliver said.

The city would also offer baseball teams that do their own infield grooming and lining a reduction of 25 per cent.

The adult men’s baseball league at Baseball Central would be granted an exemption, with the more than 140 hours of labour each week done by volunteers doing maintenance justifying the fees being waived.

Coun. Andrew Foulds (Current River) and Coun. Aldo Ruberto (At-Large) were the only two dissenting votes.



About the Author: Matt Vis

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