A school district-led project to upgrade the Islamorada-owned Founders Park baseball field hasn’t reached home base, with differences persisting for more than a year over an agreement. The points of contention, however, could finally get sorted out in a rare joint meeting between the two governing bodies.
At a July 7 meeting, village council members voted unanimously to request school board members to sit down and work through some questions and issues each side has conveyed to their respective attorneys and leaders in the last months. Superintendent Ed Tierney told Keys Weekly on July 9 the school district and board were open to the joint meeting upon hearing the village’s request on July 7. Tierney said the school district had to work through some logistics and legal aspects to ensure it could happen.
On July 21, the village council members will travel to Marathon High School, where they’ll meet school board members. The sides are still working out the time. The school board will have its regular meeting at 5:30 p.m.
The school district is seeking to spend $3.8 million on the village property at Founders Park to install a new artificial surface on the field. The project would also install new fencing and dugouts. The project has been reduced from the original estimated $6 million project, which in addition to the field, fencing and dugouts, would have included a two-story press box and concession stand behind home plate.
Draft agreements have bounced back and forth between the council and school board with new changes being proposed. Questions and differences have swirled around cost of maintenance, warranties and language for early termination, to name a few.
Keystar Construction has been selected as the contractor for the work. Founders Park baseball field has been the home of Coral Shores High School baseball for decades. The field also serves the Steady Bats program geared to improve the skill of players ages 10-18 by teaching the fundamentals of baseball.
A joint meeting is something the village council has requested for months.
“I think we are so close and I think the entire problem is because we haven’t been discussing it with the school board,” Mayor Don Horton said during the July 7 meeting.
School board member Mindy Conn also repeatedly requested a joint meeting to sort through the differences.
“It needs to be in the sunshine; the discussion between the board and village needs to happen so everybody can hear what everybody’s saying,” Conn said at the school board’s June 23 meeting.
Former Coral Shores High School baseball coach Doug Mientkiewicz also expressed the need for the sides to sit together during the public comment portion of the July 7 village meeting.
“Why can’t we sit in the same room and sit together and hash things out?” he said. “I’ve been involved with this for seven years. I’m exhausted.”
Some questions over maintenance were cleared up by Pat Lefere, county school district executive director of operations, during the July 7 village council meeting. In moving to an artificial surface, he said, the cost would be $6,000 a year, down from the roughly $48,000 a year to maintain a natural grass field.
There were new questions for Village Attorney John Quick on changes the school board made with their attorney which were previously agreed to by both sides. For instance, Quick said, the sides agreed that a written notice to terminate the agreement would take effect three years from the date it was filed. Quick said the latest proposal from the school board pushed it to five years.
School board member Sue Woltanski, who attended the council meeting, said the school district would need more time to find a home for the high school baseball program.
“It’s become clear to us there’s no way to have a baseball field in the backyard of Coral Shores and have tennis courts and practice fields,” Woltanski explained. “If we were to lose the field here, we would have to restructure not just to accommodate the baseball field, we’d have to restructure every outdoor sport.”
Tierney told Keys Weekly he’s hopeful an agreement will get worked out.
“There’s been a lot of back and forth, but that just shows the passion on both sides,” he said. “The fact that all sides are agreeing to a joint meeting indicates how they would like to get something done.”
Village Manager Ron Saunders said the hope is the village council and school board come to consensus and pass the agreement before July 29 so the new field and other amenities are ready in time for the next high school baseball season.
“This should have happened a year ago. But we’re glad the sides finally agreed to meet,” Saunders said.
