The Eliot River Ramblers, Cornwall Timberwolves, Cornwall Minor Baseball Association and Cornwall Lacrosse Program will now have to pay an extra $10 an hour to use the turf fields and an extra $2.50 an hour to use the ball fields.
It will now cost Cornwall minor sports associations $35 an hour for turf field rentals at Terry Fox Sports Complex and $10 an hour for ball field rentals at both at Terry Fox Sports Complex and the ball field on York Point Road.
Chris O’Rourke, administrator for the Cornwall Timberwolves, said this price change could increase registration fees for the football club.
O’Rourke said it is always a challenge for the club to keep the cost down as they provide their players with football gear in addition to paying for field rentals.
“We haven’t increased registration fees in the last four years,” said O’Rourke. “We were hoping to continue that, in order keep making it affordable for children, (however), whenever we run into cost increases like this, it certainly makes us re-evaluate our budget.”
These discussions regarding increasing hourly fees took place this past month with the parks and recreation committee and were presented during the monthly Cornwall town council meeting on Jan. 18.
The parks and recreation committee also recommended to council that the town not enter into a new agreement with the Eliot River Ramblers.
The three year contract, which expired in October, had numerous perks including giving the team field time for a fixed price and access to the clubhouse and upper grass fields.
The team will now be charged for all hours booked on the turf and grass field, which is owned by the town.
“I feel like it needs to be across the board the same rate for all minor sport leagues,” said councillor Jill MacIsaac after the meeting.
The prices for adult leagues, $60 an hour, will not change.
MacIsaac said the increase will help cover the costs to use the facilities as they need two staff persons working for every hour the fields are in use.
The town also pays for the electricity, water and sewage and garbage removal for those fields.
However, it still won’t cover the whole cost of production.
“It’s just kind of cushioning from where we were because before we were working at a deficit.”
MacIsaac said this price increase will also go towards replacing the turf field, which is going on its 12th year this spring.
“We’ve done well to get it that far and that is probably because our maintenance is top notch.”
The turf will have to be replaced within the next two years.
MacIsaac does recognize that not everyone will be happy about this price increase.
“Nobody likes to pay more but we all want to have a safe turf field and we are going to have to replace it and that is going to cost money.”
O’Rourke said they did hold practices elsewhere in the community last season, something they will consider doing again this season.
“It went fairly well for us so it’s definitely something, now that we see that the rates are increasing, we’ll have to probably utilize that option more.”
In a statement to The Guardian from Lacrosse P.E.I., they said that they don’t really have any concern with the changes, as they have a very supportive relationship with the town.
“They have been good to us and we don’t see this as an issue at all. We still feel that (the price) is quite reasonable.”
The Eliot River Ramblers declined comment..
