Group makes new offer for baseball park in Marietta
by Jon Gillooly
jgillooly@mdjonline.comApril 14, 2010 12:00 AM | 803 views | 1 | 10 | | MARIETTA - The private baseball group that was turned down in January by the Marietta City Council to lease the city's 7-acre Aviation Sports Complex located on Aviation Road off South Marietta Parkway has offered another proposal.
During the council's Monday work session, Councilman Grif Chalfant said the baseball group, named 6-4-3 DP Baseball Academy, had a new offer on the table to lease the park from the city.
The group previously proposed leasing the site for 20 years in exchange for spending $800,000 in renovation costs. But in January, Mayor Steve Tumlin warned that he would veto such a proposal. Tumlin said at the time it was nothing against the baseball group, but state law says one council can't bind another, which is exactly what a 20-year lease would do.
"My main thing was 20 years. My mind stopped there. It's just not legal," Tumlin said.
The 6-4-3 DP Baseball Academy was founded in 2007 by Danny Pralgo of Roswell, CEO of Westbury Carpet One, a flooring company with store locations in Marietta and Norcross. Pralgo was a baseball player at Lassiter High School in the 1980s and has also served as a head coach in the East Cobb Baseball program.
The group's latest proposal is to lease the site during the four-year term of council, with an exclusive right to negotiate subsequent renewals. But as opposed to its initial proposal, the city would be responsible for paying the up to $800,000 in improvements to the facility, while the baseball group would agree to pay $12,000 to $20,0000 a year in lease payments.
Chalfant said the lease payments and the amount the city would spend on the park are negotiable.
Tumlin said he's more amendable to the latest proposal, although it will take some "wordsmithing."
"It could work, but I think they got to stay within four years," Tumlin said. "... I don't think we ought to build the $800,000 to their specifications, but we build the park almost independent of them, but obviously get input from them. Whatever monies are necessary to build three quality baseball fields, they agree to make sure Marietta citizens have a certain amount of access to it. I can live with that."
The Aviation Sports Complex has one full size baseball field and two smaller fields adequate for adult or youth softball, said Rich Buss, city parks chief.
In 1992, the city and Marietta City Schools entered into an agreement to build the ball fields for use by the school system's athletic program. That agreement expired in 2007, at which time the school system no longer needed the fields after it built a new high school. Since then, the city has rented out the fields to little league teams and adult softball teams for $10 an hour without lights and $15 an hour with lights. Because the baseball field has been used for football and soccer, it is no longer smooth enough to be used for tournament baseball, requiring new sod, Buss said.
On Monday night, Councilman Jim King said before the council agrees to negotiate with a private company to lease the site, it first needs to determine whether it wants a baseball/softball program at the site to begin with. In response, council voted 5-2, with Philip Goldstein and Annette Lewis opposing, to place on tonight's council agenda a vote that would determine whether council wants a baseball/softball program at the site.
Lewis voted "no" because she's waiting to hear what the citizens committee charged with spending the $25 million parks bond comes up with first.
"We're in the midst of the park plan and the citizens committee has not made recommendations to where ball fields will be located," she said.
Goldstein said if the city has a baseball program at Aviation, it should be run by the city, not leased out to a private firm.
"I have significant concerns using massive amounts of public tax dollars locking the public out of the park," Goldstein said.
Goldstein said it makes no sense for the city to spend $800,000 on upgrading the site only to turn it over to a private firm that would only pay the city between $12,000 and $20,000 a year.
"It's a sweetheart deal for the private firm," Goldstein said. |
new fields for marietta
Posted - 04/15/2010 : 10:48:39
