“It’s how we set our price for registration, it includes the cost of field maintenance and improvements,” Bell said. “I’m very appreciative that I have the space and the land and the opportunity to use the field, but for any improvement ... we have to provide it ourselves.”
Although there’s an agreement between the city and the district that allows youth groups to use school fields to play sports, each entity interprets it differently.
Consequently, the user groups caught in the disconnect have needed to charge kids extra fees and raise money for field maintenance. And even then, some say the kids have to put up with playing on dirt and patchy grass.
Under the 2006 joint-use agreement, the city may use the district’s fields to hold community sporting events, including football, adult soccer and Little League baseball on weekends and after-school hours on weekdays. The agreement cannot charge user groups to play sports.
In exchange, the city pays $170,000 a year to Newport-Mesa to maintain the fields. The rate is adjusted annually for inflation. This year, the district will receive $188,000 from the city.
According to the terms of the agreement, the district must use the money to keep the fields in at least “fair” condition, which requires seeding, fertilizing and aerating. Under the deal, the district may also use the money for janitorial services.
City officials expected most of the money to be used for maintaining the fields.
But the district has spent about three quarters of that money on janitorial services, while youth groups are left to play on beat-up fields or pay their way to play on well-maintained ones.
Paul Reed, Newport-Mesa’s deputy superintendent and chief business official, said the district is meeting its end of the bargain.
