|
By David Howell
Editor
With Water Valley Blue Devil baseball practice just a few months around the corner, school trustees remain up in the air about who will maintain the city-owned baseball field behind the school.
The board voted 5-0 Monday night to send a copy of an inter-local agreement to the Mississippi Attorney General to determine if the agreement would allow the district to legally spend money to maintain the city-owned field if both parties sign the agreement.
Discussion first surfaced publicly about this issue in June when board president Ray Hawkins said that board members had recently become aware that the school district did not own the field. During that June 5 meeting, board members decided not to spend any additional money on the field until the ownership issues could be resolved. At that time Hawkins said that efforts to convert the field back to school ownership had been exhausted.
Hawkins said the decision that was made over two decades ago when previous board members approved a land swap between the school district and the city. Hawkins also said Monday night that turning loose of this land in the school’s backyard 22 years ago was a poor decision.
In this swap, the city gave the school district land in another area of Water Valley. The city needed the baseball field in order to stay in compliance with a grant from the National Park Service. That grant, which had been earmarked for a baseball field, was awarded to the city years prior to the land swap for an American Legion ball field.
Since that time the school district has sold the land it received in the swap.
Per the original resolution dating back to 1987 between the city and school district, the city would be responsible for maintaining the field. The field would also have to be open for public use, per the grant specifications.
The issue came under public scrutiny when the Blue Devil baseball booster club, who had spent thousands of dollars updating the facility in recent years, noticed that the city owned the property.
Hawkins said in the June meeting and Monday night that money spent by the school district on the baseball field since the land swap occurred could be illegal.
“We have a real good baseball program and a superfine coach. We need to support them,” board member Cayce Washington said Monday night, when the issue surfaced. Washington also said he was in favor of the coaches and baseball team continuing to maintain the field because they would do a better job.
“I don’t think this agreement is in favor of the district,” Hawkins said. “We already have an agreement with the city,” he continued, referring to the 1987 resolution.
“If three members decide we need to go with this agreement, then we will go with it,” Hawkins added.
“We are fulfilling an obligation for the city,” he also said. “We took one on the chin for the team,” he continued, adding that the school district got the city out of a bind 20 years ago.
“The last 20 years, we haven’t asked them (city) to fulfill their obligation because we didn’t know,” Washington said.
While a decision was not made Monday night determining if the school district would sign an inter-local agreement with the city, the agreement will be sent to the Attorney General’s office.
Superintendent Sammy Higdon also agreed to attend the next Water Valley Board of Aldermen meeting to see if the city would be willing to maintain the field, if asked to do so.
Higdon told board members that a decision needed to be soon, because baseball practice starts after Christmas.
|
