By Tracy Overstreet
tracy.overstreet@theindependent.com

That date and the weeks surrounding it are sure to bring organized chaos for Parks and Recreation Director Steve Paustian and Parks Superintendent Gregg Bostelman.

It's the time when they will be receiving field requests, reviewing participant counts for ball leagues and assigning fields for spring and summer ball play.

It's all due to a new policy adopted on Tuesday by the Grand Island City Council.

"The net effect is it's a facility use policy," Paustian said. "It no longer will be a contract with certain leagues."

The city for decades has signed a use contract with the ABCD Girls Softball Association for it to control the use of fields at the Sorensen Softball Complex.

While the city maintained the fields, the league signed up players, scheduled games, hired umpires and generally managed the use of the fields.

That exclusivity was challenged two years ago when the Central Nebraska Girls Softball Association wanted to use the same fields.

At the end of last year, the city council decided it was time to renegotiate field use with the ABCD Girls Softball Association. That call for renegotiation led to the new policy on field use.

While the softball fields generated the new policy, Paustian said it will apply to all parks facilities.

It requires any organization wanting to use a city field to submit a league roster, a certification of insurance and a game/practice schedule to the Parks and Recreation Department at least one month prior to the start of the league season.

The parks department will then assign game and practice dates and times, Paustian said.

"Allocations for games and practices are based on the total number of requests received, availability and priority outlines," the new policy states.

Recreation over competition

"I'm going to try to maximize it as much as possible," Paustian said of all field use.

He will give priority to league games over practice, youth games over adults, recreation leagues over competitive ones and league play over tournaments.

For the most part, Paustian said, city fields have been used as much as possible with the exception of a couple of Sorensen Softball Complex fields. Paustian thinks he can get a few more games on those fields versus how the ABCD league had the fields scheduled.

Councilman Tom Brown wondered if the city could get more field use by chalking the fields closer to game time. Brown has said he has taken his son out to a city field in the morning, only to find a sign posted prohibiting pick-up play because the field was ready for league play that night.

With about 20 fields to prep and a limited staff, Paustian said, fields have to be raked and chalked during the day in order for all the fields to be ready by evening game time.

Brown wondered if league coaches could take on the chalking duty just prior to evening games.

Leagues respond

Both leagues spoke in favor of the new use policy at least as a first-year trial.

"I have no objection to it," said Bob Sorensen, ABCD league spokesman. "We want everybody to play."

But Sorensen does want to maintain control over the concession stand that his league paid about $20,000 to build over the years. He thinks other leagues playing at the Sorensen Softball Complex should bring in a portable concession stand.

Mark Galvan, president of the Central Nebraska Girls Softball Association, has no problem with bringing in a portable concession stand but he doesn't want the two leagues playing on fields at the same complex on the same night. Then the two concession stands would be in competition, which hampers fundraising for both, he said.

While Galvan was pleased that the city is taking over field management, he wishes competitive games would take a higher priority.

Paustian said he wonders if competitive leagues are getting a little too serious about pitching mound heights, running distances between bases and such. He thinks kids need to be allowed to be kids, and all kids ought to have the opportunity to play on a city field, which is why recreational leagues have top priority.

"Obviously, there's a field shortage or better management of the fields is needed and this opens the door for working things out," Galvan said.

He said the use policy is important now, but private efforts are under way to construct more fields, which may alleviate the competitive demand for the same fields.

"Once a complex is built in a couple of years, there won't be these problems," Galvan said.

In the meantime, he's ready to play by the new rules.

"I hope everyone wants to work together when the time comes," Galvan said.

"It's a pretty radical change for delivery of service," Paustian told the city council.