Price of play Recreation providers struggle with facility costs

Sports participation is big in small towns, but regional officials said the biggest leap can be finding money to build new facilities or improve old ones.

South Pittsburg, Tenn., City Administrator Tom Landers said the city used its own budget and some grants to build baseball and soccer fields. The city recent applied for a $250,000 grant to build a baseball complex with four fields, he said.

“There is no sense in applying for a $1 million grant when I know we don’t have sufficient funds for the 50 percent matching amount,” Mr. Landers said.

Mr. Landers said the cost of a large project is a moving target.

“We could end up spending $500,000 or $750,000 over an extended period of time on the new complex,” he said.

Parents, volunteers and officials with small governments say it’s hard to get money for big projects.

“We have a small budget for recreation, so we depend heavily on voter approval of recreation projects through special purpose local option sales tax proceeds,” Dade County, Ga., Executive/Manager Ben Brandon said.

He said it takes long-range planning to complete large recreation projects funded over five years with the special sales tax. He cited a county project to build three new soccer fields with $1.4 million in SPLOST money that began about three years ago.

“The final price was $1.6 million because purchase of the land was not in the estimate,” Mr. Brandon said.

Scott Norton of Catoosa County, Ga., has a child in sports and is a coach in the Boynton Recreation Association. He said recreation associations should consider working together on projects.

“If Boynton and Ringgold could link up and pool financial resources we might be in a position to develop our fields where they compare with larger, county-run facilities in the Atlanta area,” he said. “That’s my personal opinion. All we want is to have enough fields and good facilities.”

Rick Brady, a volunteer who serves as commissioner of the slow-pitch softball league in Fort Oglethorpe, said he is frustrated that SPLOST funds aren’t being used to upgrade existing fields.”

In Sequatchie County, Tenn., Daniel Davenport was among volunteer workers and fundraisers for the 2007 development of four fields at the John Griswold Recreation Park.

Sequatchie County commissioners promised to provide a double match for money raised from private sources and for equipment and material donations. The county set a maximum matching share of $300,000.

“Total funding for the park was more than $400,000,” Mr. Davenport said.

Catoosa County voters have approved $500,000 for each of three recreation associations in recent SPLOST cycles, but two of those have not yet built a complex.

Marty Heatherly, a volunteer in the Boynton Recreation Association, presented a plan to develop four ball fields, parking and a combination two-story building for bathrooms, a meeting room and concession stand.

“The projected price for the proposed complex is $1.1 million,” he said.

County officials said the Boynton association has about $400,000 of the $500,000 expected over the five years of the SPLOST that expires in 2009.

Commissioners suggested the association plan the work to coincide with a vote on the next SPLOST vote.

Delays for funding are a major frustration, recreation officials and volunteers said.

“Contractors aren’t interested in doing $100,000 in grading, then stopping for a year before the next $100,000 is available,” Fort Oglethorpe Recreation Director Jeff Long said last year at a meeting of associations and county officials.

Fort Oglethorpe Mayor Ronnie Cobb said a master plan developed for a 42-acre recreation tract off Dietz Road projected it would cost millions to have all the fields and structures built by contractors.

“We will seek donations of time and equipment from companies with large excavating equipment,” Mr. Cobb said. “We will probably need another $1.5 million to prepare a large portion of the complex.”

He said a $1 million project now could cost $2 million if there’s a wait of several years to accumulate the money.

The LaFayette, Ga., City Council has built up the general fund for years and is now developing a four-field girls softball complex on 10 acres.

“The expense of this project has increased as we saved,” LaFayette City Manager Johnnie Arnold said. “It may cost close to $500,000, but we must have the money up front before starting.”