Have to PAY to use a City Ball Field.....Say What?

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Listen to this, we called the city of Ashland, Ohio, to see about scheduling a time to use one of the city ball fields for our practices. ?They told us that we could do that, but we would have to pay $10.00 each time we used it! ?WHAT??? ?These fields were built and are maintained with taxpayer dollars, yet the public has to pay the city to use them??? ?Does that seem odd? ?Most of these fields are fenced & locked so you can't even get onto them. ?I don't understand it! ?Anyway, our team has taken on some girls from up north and we are trying to find a field in Ashland, Lodi, Seville, maybe even Wooster areas to practice. ?Does anyone have any ideas of a field we can use? ?

 

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Re: Have to PAY to use a City Ball Field.....Say W

I've been to that park. The teeter-totter takes tokens.

 

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Re: Have to PAY to use a City Ball Field.....Say W

I think I have been there too. The parking was $5.00 a car. ;D ;D

eatsleep that really stinks. Maybe you should right an editorial to the local paper to raise awareness to what is going on? :-? :-?

 

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Re: Have to PAY to use a City Ball Field.....Say W

Hi,

Seville, has several fields that are not normally in use so I think it may be a very good possibility to get one. They do have pee wee football on one some Saturdays, and practice on some the others during the week, but that is about it. They only use these softball fields for rec league in June and part of July, so they should be availalbe, however, you would probably have to bring your own throw down bases and pitching rubber, since all that is left out is the home plate. Also they will not be groomed, raked or anything, so be forwarned, however they are usually in decent shape for practice purposes.

I would suggest to call the city and check to make sure, but I don't think there is a fee or anything unless it has changed.

Hope this helps and good luck.

 

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Re: Have to PAY to use a City Ball Field.....Say W

Eatsleepfastptich, sent you a PM.

 

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Re: Have to PAY to use a City Ball Field.....Say W

Listen to this, we called the city of Ashland, Ohio, to see about scheduling a time to use one of the city ball fields for our practices. ?They told us that we could do that, but we would have to pay $10.00 each time we used it! ?WHAT??? ?

I would have told them that you already paid the fee. If they ask for a receipt - show them your paycheck stub where it says CITY TAXES!

 

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Re: Have to PAY to use a City Ball Field.....Say W

I think I have been there too. ?The parking was $5.00 a car. ? ;D ;D

eatsleep that really stinks. ?Maybe you should right an editorial to the local paper to raise awareness to what is going on? ? :-? :-?

You know, I just might do that! ?By the time I'm done, THEY'LL BE PAYING US TO PRACTICE ON THEIR FIELDS! ?Oh, sorry, got a little carried away there.
And A1sdad, thank you for the info on the Seville fields. ?I'll check into it.

 

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Re: Have to PAY to use a City Ball Field.....Say W

Not to be a wet blanket, but I think thier response would be:

"Are all of the members of your team Ashland residents?"

Sad but true.

 

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Re: Have to PAY to use a City Ball Field.....Say W

The response would be.... They are American... does that count?

 

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Re: Have to PAY to use a City Ball Field.....Say W

Johnnies it probably doesn't to those people. You can just say that you and your DD were having some fun playing catch and the other ladies just showed up. ;D ;D

 

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Re: Have to PAY to use a City Ball Field.....Say W

I am from Ashland area also, and unfortunately, you can't just play a pick up game on some of the fields since many are gated and locked!

 

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Re: Have to PAY to use a City Ball Field.....Say W

Being from NWO I am a bit naive. Why do they have your fields locked down. How can a dad/mom and their DD ever practice? I hope they never get like that up here. Enough kids just sit on the computer or with vidoe games as it is. It is a shame to see a field, diamond, basketball court, playground, etc, locked down and not get used. And we wonder why the youth of our country is getting heavier every year. IMHO

 

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Re: Have to PAY to use a City Ball Field.....Say W

It's odd, considering this is a town that benefits from softball in a pretty big way. ?They host tournaments such as the Wendy's classic. ?They have the Ashland University and the softball program there, which brings in lots of people, not only for games but clinics, camps, etc. ?They have several ball teams, travel, rec & otherwise. ?And, there seems to be more than enough fields in that area to accomodate the now-and-again softball practice. ?Ashland county residents or not, these fields are already paid for, let the people use them!

 

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Re: Have to PAY to use a City Ball Field.....Say W

Not sure how other areas work but here in Akron, most fields are open to anyone wanting to play on them if no one else is using them. If you want to make sure you have the field for a particular time, you can get a permit for it. The cost in low but there is some cost involved. We have some fields that are locked. This happens when an org. or business maintains the field and doesn't have the City do it. Now you can ask for a permit for that locked field but the City will first make sure the org. or business doesn?t have a conflict for the time requested. Sure we play taxes to the City but field maintenance is low on the list :'(

 

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Re: Have to PAY to use a City Ball Field.....Say W

City of New Castle wants $500 to host a tourney on their fields now AND concessions which they were already getting. It is getting to difficult to host a tourney and break even. If it rains forget it, impossible. We always cleaned the entire park before and after, trimmed along fences and under every bleacher on up to 8 fields, filled holes in the infields and outfields, maintained fields during the events, and brought in port-a-johns.
Needless to say, no longer worth the time and efforts for a couple hundred bucks. Being forced to have two umpires even in pool play eats up alot of the registration fees. If this is going to be the new trend, tournament fees will be on the rise AGAIN or there could be more "unsanctioned" tournements.

 

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Re: Have to PAY to use a City Ball Field.....Say W

"These fields were built and are maintained with taxpayer dollars"

If the kids are from Ashland then I would say you might have a beef, but if they're not, then why should the taxpayers of Ashland provide a field for kids of non-taxpayers to use for free? Ten bucks sounds pretty cheap to use a field if you are not working or living there and paying income tax.

 

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Re: Have to PAY to use a City Ball Field.....Say W

We ran into the same problem in Franklin. The city where we live doesn't have a fastpitch org. It is all slow pitch. I helped get a fastpitch org. for our girls started. Everyone on the team is from the city and attends the local school. The park director charged us $140 per team(3 teams) to play our home games(7 games per team) I have to do all the field prep and buy my own supplies for the field. It doesn't sound bad at $20 per game but just irks me to pay. By the way we get no practice time scheduled.

 

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Re: Have to PAY to use a City Ball Field.....Say W

"These fields were built and are maintained with taxpayer dollars"

If the kids are from Ashland then I would say you might have a beef, but if they're not, then why should the taxpayers of Ashland provide a field for kids of non-taxpayers to use for free? ?Ten bucks sounds pretty cheap to use a field if you are not working or living there and paying income tax.

This is KIDS we're talking about! ?Weren't they the whole purpose for building the ball fields to begin with?? ?Charging them to use the very fields that were developed for them is a crime, whether they're from Ashland or not. ?I know of many fields that freely allow kids / teams from other areas to come in and use their fields. ?$10 may not seem like alot, but considering all the ball fields out there, why would anyone actually pay that? ?Someone spoke about Seville in another thread and yes, they are more than happy to allow any "outside" team of KIDS to come in and practice on their fields, as well as many other areas. ?A locked-up ballfield in a public park.......A-town should be ashamed of themselves.

 

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Re: Have to PAY to use a City Ball Field.....Say W

It seems this is becoming more and more popular---to charge to use a field. I know the community I live in (Cleveland area), you have to submit your team's roster to the city and obtain a permit to use the fields. They charge you $50 and all the kids on the roster have to be from that city/community. It's ridiculous. It becomes very challenging to find a field at times.

 

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Re: Have to PAY to use a City Ball Field.....Say W

I've been to that park. The teeter-totter takes tokens.

Say THAT ten times fast.