The ordinance would institute a fee to be paid by teams that use Memorial Park, Maplecrest Park, Borden Park and DeHart Park. It is also expected to be extended to Underhill Field for school teams that use those fields for lacrosse, field hockey, football and baseball at a later date.
"What has been happening for years is whatever money has been leftover from recreation (fees) hasn't been going back into the fields to upgrade them," said TC Member Greg Lembrich, the committee's liaison to the recreation department. "It was going into general surplus. This is creating a segregated trust fund that will be created by those user fees."
He said similar fees have been approved by the South Orange Board of Trustees to be implemented in the fall sports season. They are already reflected in the registration fees for the Fall 2016 Baird Center events on South Orange fields.
School Board member Beth Daugherty said the school district will not impose a per-player fee, but instead set aside $20,000 in the 2016-2017 school district budget to be placed in the new user fee fund.
The fees would be put into a joint fund overseen by a committee with members from the school district, South Orange and Maplewood.
"The way to do that without substantially raising tax is like a toll," Lembrich added. "Get money from the users. It is going to tack $20 onto the recreation fee to use the fields, and also for the time an outside organization that rents the field on an hourly basis."
If approved, the ordinance would implement a new fee each season of $20 for each player on a team that uses a field in Maplewood, $40 for a non-resident.
In addition, any group that rents a field for a one-time use will pay an additional $25 per hour, $50 per hour for a non-resident group.
See the entire meeting agenda HERE.
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