Cedartown, Little League agreement sees notable change
Cedartown commissioners will get to vote after press time this week on whether they agree with new language negotiated this year on the lease held by Cedartown’s Little League Baseball organization.
City Manager Bill Fann went through an overview of the changes with the commission, and said that with this year’s updated lease for baseball fields at the Bert Wood Youth and Athletic Complex, they’ll have to agree to share more time.
“We’re removing ‘exclusive’ from the document and replacing the word,” Fann said.
That means the baseball league can’t claim priority over fields that aren’t in use for other sports like softball when their teams need to practice, and don’t have exclusive rights to the parking lot or whole premises.
Fann said mainly the changes to the lease agreement allow for the baseball league to have priority since they are paying for the use, but can’t hold others out from using baseball outfields or other spaces all the time.
“It mainly provides more cooperation between Cedartown Youth Baseball and the softball league in particular to allow them to both be at the same place at the same time when all the fields aren’t being used,” he said.
It also gives some leeway for the city to try and lease out space for tournaments when little league team’s aren’t playing in town on a weekend, as a for instance.
Fann said there’s good reason to change the agreement with the league, since participation numbers have decreased some in previous years as the number of children who play softball has increased.
Additionally, the language isn’t set in stone. It does allow for the league and the city to renegotiate in future years should the situation change.
Fann did add that unlike previous years, he’s been waiting for the league to provide financial documents and numbers the city needs to complete a yearend audit of the 2018 fiscal year that wrapped up on Dec. 31.
He said his hope was to have those soon in order to meet requirements put forth on completing an audit without issue.
Quarterly and annual statements are included as requirements in the agreement approved annually, but Fann said those haven’t been forthcoming.
He also said the league is required to provide a liability insurance certificate “which we stress because we didn’t get a certificate last year.”
Check back later in the week online for more on whether the Commission approved of the agreement during the regular session on March 11.