An agreement is stalling between the Village of Islamorada and Monroe County School District to implement more than $5 million in improvements to the Founders Park baseball field.
A project led by the school district on village park property proposes field enhancements and upgraded amenities at the home of Coral Shores High School baseball. New dugouts, a two-story multiuse building behind home plate for concessions, bathrooms and a press box, as well as new bleachers are among the notable enhancements.
In addition, the school district is seeking to install artificial turf to replace a natural grass that baseball staff say is challenging to maintain at an adequate playing level during the season.
Before the project can reach construction, the village and school district need to approve a baseball license agreement, which details the respective rights and obligations of the village and school district related to reconstruction and use of the baseball field. The pact, a 20-year term with automatic renewal for an additional 20 years, also outlines the high school baseball program’s use of the field from January to late May.
Council members are sticking to an agreement they unanimously approved at a Jan. 8 meeting which gives the village oversight and input over the design, materials and construction of the field. School district officials held a retreat in Key West on Feb. 10 and came back with alterations to the proposed pact to limit the village’s control over details of construction, materials and field maintenance.
During a March 10 meeting in Marathon, the school board voted 5-0 to amend its version of the baseball license agreement. Members altered two paragraphs related to termination of the agreement and subsequent payment by the village to the district over a certain number of years, also known as amortization, if the village ended the agreement before the expiration date.
If the village backed out of the agreement before the expiration in March 2046, the school district’s proposed agreement states the village would have to pay the school district back for the improvements made to the field based on a 30-year amortization period or 40-year amortization period, with the parties reappraising the property at the end of the first 20 years.
Several versions of the proposed baseball license agreement were floating among the school district and village. There was the village’s version, the school board’s marked-up draft during their February retreat and another version based on discussions between schools Superintendent Ed Tierney, Village Manager Ron Saunders and attorneys from each side. Tierney told board members the district’s attorneys and he met with Saunders and their attorney to go over some of the sticking points within the agreement.
“There was give and take,” Tierney explained. “We stayed within the spirit of what the board wanted, as evidenced by comments in the retreat. We clarified language they (the village) were concerned about.”
School board member Mindy Conn said some of the things the village is seeking in the agreement make her “seriously uncomfortable.”
“I get the people that say ‘we are the landlord’ and ‘what we say goes.’ … If we have a budget of $6 million and they (the village) want to make a change and come back at $7 million because they have that right per the license agreement, that’s a problem.”
Village council members, however, will be sticking to an agreement they approved in January. Council members, who had a meeting the same night as the school board, said they had no intention of changing what they examined and said “yes” to earlier in the year. The approval came following numerous meetings of Citizens Baseball Review Task Force convened by Saunders, village parks and recreation and the regular council. Saunders told council members he started working on it shortly after becoming manager in April 2025.
“There have been hours and hours and lots of community input we hadn’t had in the past, truthfully,” Saunders said.
Some council members took issue with the many pages they saw marked up in red by the school board to the proposed agreement during their recent retreat.
“That isn’t trying to negotiate, it’s trying to buffalo their way through this contract,” said Mayor Don Horton.
Vice Mayor Sharon Mahoney said the village council must balance what’s best for the kids and what’s right for the citizens.
School board member Dr. Sue Woltanski said the sides should revert to the original license agreement because “it worked and that’s what we always have done.”
During their March 10 meetings, some members on the school board and village council acknowledged a willingness for a joint meeting to hash out the key issues which are preventing the agreement from advancing. School board member Darren Horan said he supported the idea of a meeting between the governing boards.
“Until we’re all in a room, we’re going to be at a standstill with all of us pointing fingers at the other,” he said.
School board chairman John Dick believed it wasn’t the board’s place to hold a joint meeting to negotiate the issues.
“Our attorneys and superintendent know exactly where this board stands. They can go and meet with them,” he said.
As of March 18, no joint meeting was scheduled between the two governing boards. Pat Lefere, school district executive director of operations, acknowledged a contract to set a strict total cost for the contractors will come before the school board during an April 7 meeting. If the item doesn’t get the board’s approval, the improvements at the baseball field would be delayed until after the 2027 season.
Amid the differences, Conn said she’s been having conversations with people in the county about other potential playing sites for the Coral Shores High School baseball program.
“There are other options open to us, especially since we’re also redoing the Coral Shores backyard,” Conn said. “I don’t like being held over a fire to do whatever the village wants. We should all be wanting what’s best for the kids.”
