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By Zachary Seifter/ Staff Writer

 

The Thorsby Council talked at long length about the issue of rental rates for the town’s local baseball fields during a meeting on April 19.

The issue was brought to the council by Thorsby Parks and Recreation Director Sean Shaneyfelt.

Currently, the town is charging just $20 per session for out of town teams to rent the baseball fields for practices. The Parks and Recreation Committee of Thorsby feel the rate is far too low, and it is not helping the town make enough money to upkeep the fields to the standard they would like.

The Parks and Recreation Committee has suggested raising the rate to $75 per practice session, or $500 per month if a team would like to use the Thorsby fields for a month, per Shaneyfelt. The $500 rate would give the renting team access to a field four nights per week for two hours per practice.

However, Shaneyfelt thought that rate may be too high, as did the council.

“My opinion would be to stay closer to [the] $50 range,” Shaneyfelt said.

The council and Shaneyfelt agreed that he should go back to the committee and suggest lowering the suggested rental rate to $50 per practice, as well as the monthly rate to $400 per month.

Thorsby Mayor Robert Hight thought those rates were too high for Thorsby teams, however.

“They’re paying taxes on a park they can’t use, they have to pay for [it],” Hight said. “I’d have a problem with that.”

As a solution, Hight asked Shaneyfelt to go back to the committee to ask if local teams could get a lower rate on the fields than teams that come from outside of Thorsby.

The council voted unanimously to table the issue until Shaneyfelt comes back with more information.

Also discussed at the meeting was the issue of a revised town employee manual. Thorsby Council Attorney Bentley Owens brought a draft of a new manual for the council to look over before the next meeting.