Islamorada Village Council and Monroe County School Board members met together in Marathon on July 21 to resolve longstanding differences over upgrades and use of the Founders Park baseball field.
The joint meeting lasted two hours and was moderated by former Marathon City Manager George Garrett. The board and council were gaveled into session separately and then jointly discussed the baseball field 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 sides, in working with their respective attorneys, the superintendent and village manager, have long had concerns over language within the agreement.
Before discussing among the governing boards, comments from the public at the start of the session primarily focused on protecting the village taxpayers. The license agreement, as some believed, is a landlord-tenant agreement. The village owns the property; the tenant — the school board — is paying some $3.8 million for substantial improvements to the property.
The discussion simplified when the two bodies agreed to limit the initial project and the agreement to a turf field, fencing, dugouts and batting cages. The goal is to have everything ready for the start of the next baseball season.
As school board member Sue Woltanski said, adding bleachers complicates the effort because of building codes that specify bathrooms of specific capacity for bleachers of certain sizes.
“This past year, the school put $20,000 worth of repairs into those bleachers,” she said.
Bleachers, a concession stand and a press box that were part of the original $6 million plan are now set aside for future discussion.
The village staff will not maintain the updated facilities. The estimated annual cost of maintenance for the school district is under $50,000 based on similar artificial turf fields in the district. This is in line with the cost of maintenance of just the current turf field.
The issue of insurance was discussed, but with fencing, turf and dugouts, there was no physical property to insure. Arrangements were made to inspect the field for wear-and-tear after periods of use.
The two groups discussed security and liability. Security will be improved with added cameras at the park, and the attorneys for both sides were instructed to examine liability coverages.
Differences over amortization and other schedules resolved when the license agreement was given a 20-year life span.
The plans and drawings for the field are on the village website. Final votes to consider and approve the agreement are scheduled for the village council during a July 27 special call meeting and during a July 28 regular school board meeting.
