This may sound like a broken record, but is “building a five-level, 977-space parking structure on city-owned property that’s designated as parkland” the same thing as, “building a five-level, 977-space parking structure in a city park”? Bird Hills Park has 140 acres of woods “on city-owned land that’s designated as parkland”. Burns Park has two baseball diamonds and a basketball court “on “city-owned land that’s designated as parkland”. You get to choose your own words, but your phraseology might read a tad less torturedly, and a bit more straightforwardly, if you simply referred to Fuller Park as “a city park”.

And yes, leases for long-term structures, with no provision for removing the structure ever, with transfer of the rights and responsibilities of ownership to the lessor, do smell to some like constructive sales, structured to try to avoid the city charter’s requirement for a referendum, no matter who’s name is on the deed.

Guess I’m feeling petulant today.

John Floyd
Republican for Council
Ward 5

Ann Arbor charges $80 for grooming alone. On top of that, Rec & Ed charges a $55 “field setup fee,” which is the work performed by a contractor who makes the dual visits to each field. Then, for City fields, there is a $29 “booking fee” per two-hour block of time, or for AAPS (Rec & Ed) fields there is a $9 per hour rental fee.

So, I was wrong, it’s $164, not $180. I had both the $29 City and $18 ($9 for two hours) Rec & Ed fee in there at the same time, but I think they’re mutually exclusive. Still, though.

What I’m wondering is why can’t one person do all the prep work on a single visit? Can’t the City and Rec & Ed figure out some way to have a single person drive the tractor, set the bases and chalk the lines? What is preventing the introduction of an efficient process into this?

The first topic is the condition of the fields. They are bad in Ann Arbor, and I’m glad the PAC has taken notice of this. When I talk to coaches in surrounding communities, this is one of the main issues they point out (along with the fees, which is addressed in a couple paragraphs).

Adopting a field is a great idea, and is exactly the idea I submitted in response to an email survey several months ago. I never heard anything back from anybody, so I had no idea if anyone was listening. We (travel baseball teams) would be very happy to adopt a field and take care of it. We would solve the problems with puddles hanging around for days after it rains, holes in the backstops, bases set at the wrong positions for games, and other problems. Some of it would take some City funds (no amount of raking will fix a field that is as hard as cement), but the result is a benefit to both travel (remember, Ann Arbor citizens) and Rec & Ed baseball teams, because the field would be in better condition.

This second topic is rental fees. Currently, field rental rates are about $180 per game, which is astronomical. The increases that occurred two years ago killed-off the only organization that offered competitive youth baseball in Ann Arbor (AAABA); Rec & Ed does not offer competitive baseball to Ann Arbor citizens. In the absence of such an offering, the City should make its fields available to these teams, which are made up mostly of Ann Arbor citizens and coached by Ann Arbor citizens.

Currently, competitive baseball teams in and around Ann Arbor avoid Ann Arbor’s fields; we can’t afford them. We have to leave town to play at other fields, which are already crowded with teams from those towns. Ann Arbor is missing revenue that these teams would provide. Beginning with the first 45-degree day in March we would gladly rent (for a fair price) Ann Arbor’s fields for our practices, and beginning in early May, before Rec & Ed baseball, softball and kickball even start, we would rent the fields for games (again, at a fair price). As it is now, these fields sit idle for these months and the City generate no revenue from them. Please notice that we are not looking for free handouts. We are asking for the ability to rent the fields, but at a realistic price.

My understanding is that the current system of field preparation involves an inefficient process where a contractor visits each field to remove the bases and pitcher’s plate, then a city tractor visits each field to groom it, then the contractor makes a second visit to each field to place the bases and chalk the lines. I can’t help but think this process is directly related to the high rental fees.

In contrast to this, other communities use a process in which the bases are kept in a locked box at night. The city grooms the fields, and the coaches, who are given the combination to the padlock at the beginning of the season, set the bases and chalk the lines themselves. After the game, everything is put back in the box and the box is locked. This requires one visit to each field by a city employee. As coaches of competitive baseball teams, we are more than willing to do this work ourselves. It’s happening everywhere… except Ann Arbor.

This summer my youngest son had a baseball game, through Rec & Ed, at which the bases were set to the incorrect distance. The umpire pointed out that nobody – not even he – could move the bases, and if they were moved, there would be no game. This is simply nuts.

The third topic is competitive baseball. I don’t know why Ann Arbor refuses to offer this, but non the less, it’s completely absent. Many other communities offer both competitive and “house” (everybody-plays) leagues. I know of two dozen boys just at the 13-year-old level who are looking for teams to play on and are coming up short.

Now go back and read all that again, while replacing the word “baseball” with “softball,” because the same issues apply to girl’s youth softball, and the same problems exist for them.

The youth baseball environment in Ann Arbor is one that would make Norman Rockwell cry. Al Slote, if you’re out there, we need you!