By NATE KING
Salina Post
At its recent meeting, Salina City Commissioners agreed to increase rental fees for Salina ball fields with synthetic turf. The meeting also sparked conversation regarding Kansas Wesleyan's usage of City-owned ball fields and their contributions to turf replacement and maintenance.
To view the Aug. 26 regular meeting of the Salina City Commission click the play button above.
Salina Parks and Recreation Director Jeff Hammond presented Resolution 24-8210 to commissioners and clarified why the fee increases were necessary.
"Significant improvements have been made to several of our facilities, including synthetic turf enhancements at Bill Burke Memorial Park, Dean Evans Stadium, and an ongoing project at Pestiger Family Stadium," Hammond said. "To ensure the long-term sustainability of these upgrades, it's important that we plan for ongoing costs. The cost of maintenance and future turf replacement."
Hammond said the industry standard is that turf replacement funds should reflect 55% of the initial turf installation cost.
"The city established a turf maintenance fund and replacement fund to support these efforts, which was part of the development agreement with the initial Dean Evans renovation three years ago," Hammond said. "Current contributions have built a fund balance of $150,000, which is projected to grow to $550,000 by 2031."
After reviewing comparable facilities across Kansas, the Berkley Family Recreational Area Advisory Board and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board recommended the proposed fee increases.
They are listed below:
During the conversation on whether or not to approve the increase in fees, Mayor Bill Longbine offered remarks on Kansas Wesleyan's collegiate practice use of the turf fields.
"One item I kind of looked into is the use that Wesleyan puts on the fields," Longbine said. "Sizing of team and weight. There is just a lot of difference between a 12-year-old and a 20-year-old who's in full-time weight training when it comes to the wear and tear that they put on the facility. So I don't know if this [proposed increase] is sufficient."
Commissioners asked City Staff if any data was available regarding how larger bodies and more professional teams use the turfed fields compared to intermural or little league teams' use.
City Staff said they did not know of any data regarding the topic but would inquire and see if any research exists.
Longbine also asked City Manager Mike Schrage if Kansas Wesleyan pays local property taxes.
"I don't know the nature of all their holdings, so I'm not prepared to say that they don't, but I'm not aware of any," said Salina City Manager Mike Schrage.
"As far as far as contributing to the facilities, your average Salina taxpayer is contributing on a daily basis," Longbine said.
Mike Hoppock asked if City Staff considered inflation when determining the anticipated turf replacement costs.
"There's nothing built in here for inflation," Hoppock said. "I calculated the first time we'd have to replace turf in 2031, I come up with closer to $900,000 at a 3-5% inflation rate."
Debbie Pack, finance director for the city of Salina, said city staff did not consider inflation or the growth of the transient guest tax when determining the amount needed to be in the turf replacement fund.
"That's going to lead me into another deal - When we passed the transient guest tax use we were looking at turfing Bill Burke. That was to pay for the turf, the debt service the current turf and replace it and the maintenance on it," Hoppocks said. "All of a sudden, the transient guest tax has been thrown into Dean Evans and Pestinger. We put the 1% increase in the transient guest tax to reduce the tax burden on Salina taxpayers, not to underwrite Kansas Wesleyan's budget."
Hoppock continued.
"It appears we're alleviating Kansas Wesleyan paying their share of the replacement on the turf at Dean Evans. I'm just going to be honest. That's the way it looks," Hoppock said.
Commissioner Hoppock said that the revenue from the increase in the transient guest tax should go towards Bill Burke Park and the Salina Fieldhouse for future turf repair.
"Transient guest tax should be used for, again, for Bill Burke, the Salina Field House or other publically owned facilties. Because that's where that money is generated by the teams that come in," Hoppock said.
Kansas Wesleyan University, according to Hoppock's estimate, uses the city's facilities about 60% of the time, which, in his opinion, does not match the university's contribution to turf maintenance.
"And again, I'm sorry, I'm picking on Wesleyan, but they're the ones that use the facility probably at least 60% of the time, and in my simple mind, if you use a facility 60% of the time, you ought to be responsible for 60% of the maintenance, and probably 60% of the of the replacement," Hoppock said. "If you're looking at Dean Evans and Pestinger, they [KWU] put $125,000 into $6 million worth of facilities, which is about a 2% investment. It's not a very big investment."
Hoppock said he plans to recieve exact gate logging data relating to Kansas Wesleyan's usage of the turfed baseball fields.
Hoppock also discussed Kansas Wesleyan's investment during the initial upgrades to Dean Evans Stadium.
"I just calculated if Wesleyan just built one facility at $3 million and they financed half of it, their payment a month would be $14,000. That's what they paid us last year to use Dean Evans for a full year."
Commissioner Trent Davis said he was confident City Staff would be able to find data to support the assumption held by most of the commission — larger bodies and professional teams wear turf fields out quicker than smaller-bodied, nonprofessional teams.
"There are enough colleges in this country that I'm sure somebody would be able to share the data with us and somewhat quantify it," Davis said. "We're assuming that. I'm not saying it's incorrect, but we are assuming that a lot of big people tear up the turf sooner and will have to replace it sooner, or replace pieces of it more often. It would be nice to see if that is quantifiable."
During the time for public comment on the resolution, John Blanchard of Salina spoke about the importance of maintaining healthy partnerships with local colleges.
"One of the main things Kansas Wesleyan brings is that it's a four-year liberal arts college. A significant portion of people who go to school and live here," Blanchard said. "We've made a lot of efforts over the years to retain a lot of those students, so I would just proceed in a manner that is consistent with all the efforts that we've made in the past to make sure that we're working constructively with them and letting them know that we do appreciate the partnerships that that we have with them."
The commissioners agreed that quick action was needed to iron out the collegiate fee structure ahead of the upcoming baseball/softball season.
Commissioner Hoppock said he favored approving some of fees in the resolution; However, he would like to revisit the Dean Evans practice rate for oversized teams, Bill Burke college practice rate, and Bill Burke collegiate game rate. Including all fees for Dean Evans and Pestinger.
Speaking personally for himself and not for the commission, Hoppock said he feels that an agreement can be reached with Kansas Wesleyan to fund the turf maintenance equitably.
"I want to be a good partner with Kansas Wesleyan and I'm not, mad at Wesleyan by any means," Hoppock said. " We just really need to sit down with them and say, 'Okay, this is what's happening- Kansas Wesleyan, they are the largest user of that facility by far, and so we need to talk about what's an equitable payment to help maintain that facility and fund future turf."
Hoppock motioned to approve Resolution 24-8210 with the following amendments: Item three, Dean Evans and Pessinger Stadium to add Dean Evans and Pestinger Stadium per practice, and college use rate to be determined. Number four, Dean Evans and Pestinger Stadium per practice for oversized teams, to be determined. Number seven, Bill Burke Memorial Park college practice rate, to be determined and item eight, Bill Burke Memorial Park College game rate, to be determined and strike the "before" column in its entirety.
Commissioner Greg Lenkiewicz seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously, 5-0.