MEDINA, Ohio - Third parties looking to rent city owned athletic fields might notice a price increase in the near future.
Parks and Recreation Director Jansen Wehrley said his department is considering a change to the fee structure for third party rentals of the city's baseball and softball fields.
"This would not affect our sports associations we work with that have priority over the fields," Wehrley told the finance committee. "Over the last several years, travel teams have become a lot more prevalent so there have been a lot more requests for field space. We always entertain those requests when we can, but it does take a little more work on our part as we have to communicate with the associations and make sure their schedules haven't changed. Also, a lot of these requests to use the field come the same day they want to use the field so then we have to pull staff to prepare the field by dragging and lining it."
Wehrley said the parks and recreation department currently charges $35 per game and $50 per game that includes field lights. He proposed increasing the cost to $75 per game and $100 per game with lights.
"Because of the time we are putting into this process, these rentals cost us about $65 so we thought $75 was fair especially after looking at what neighboring communities charge," Wehrley said. "When athletic field lighting is needed someone has to come in and program that. Our goal is to make sure we our covering the cost of our staff time."
Wehrley also proposed a requirement of making requests for field rentals at least 24 hours in advance.
"Also this will not affect Medina City School District sponsored events," he said. "But I would like to get this implemented by the beginning of the year."