Despite recent budget cuts that many Petal residents worried would end youth sports in the Friendly City, Mayor Hal Marx said city officials are working with the Petal Sports Association to ensure those activities will continue in the city.
Marx and members of the Petal Board of Aldermen met Monday night with PSA officials to determine whether PSA could provide labor to maintain the city ballfields near the Petal Family Branch YMCA. Marx said although the PSA hosts games at those parks, for the past couple years the city has shouldered the financial responsibility, which has become no longer feasible.
“Our contention is that we will still provide the fields for PSA, we will pay the light bill for the lights, we will pay the insurance on the complex (near the Petal Family Y),” Marx said. “We will maintain the outer perimeters of the complex – everything outside of the fields themselves, we will maintain.
“But we do not feel like we have the money to maintain the personnel or supplies to mow and upkeep all the ball fields as we have been doing. So our proposal would be that the PSA would find a way to do that on their own – basically through volunteers or somebody they might hire with money they generate through their ball games and things. If they can do that, then of course they can continue to offer the same programs that they’ve been offering.”
If not, there is another option: members of a local group that maintains the fields at Sunrise have volunteered to provide labor to maintain the fields and host a youth baseball and softball league.
“So I believe PSA is discussing whether they can do that or not,” Marx said. “If they can’t, then we would look to this other group and possibly offer them an opportunity to come in and run the league.
“If PSA says they can do it, then we’d be happy to allow PSA to continue to use our fields. Either way, we will have some type of youth baseball and softball activities going on in the city of Petal next year. It may be under PSA or it may not be; that’s what we’re waiting to determine.”
David Nicholson, vice president of the PSA, said officials from his organization asked the city to put certain measures – such as the field maintenance issue – down on paper to ensure that everything is explored and nothing is left out during discussions.
“So to be honest with you, as far as the PSA is concerned, we really won’t know a whole lot until we get that back from them,” he said. “Of course, I know they’ll get it done as quickly as they can.
“I feel confident that when all is said and done, there’s not an elected official, there’s not a parent and there’s not a PSA member that doesn’t feel like the 1,700 kids won’t be back on the field. We’ve got to just figure out how it can be done.”
In 2017, PSA and the city entered into a partnership that created the Petal Athletics Office under the jurisdiction of the City of Petal Parks and Recreation Department. Previous to that, the Optimist Club of Petal was responsible for baseball in the city, while girl’s softball was operated at the fields in Sunrise.
Marx said during the city’s partnership with PSA, sports grew and combined, particularly with football, basketball and cheerleading. Despite that, the programs did not produce enough revenue for the city to cover the cost to taxpayers, with the city receiving slightly more than $100,000 back on an expense budget of almost $800,000.
Because of that, members of the Board of Aldermen have proposed to cut the recreation budget by approximately $500,000.
“After two years, the aldermen and I have reached the conclusion that this situation isn't sustainable,” Marx said in a recent Facebook post. “People say government needs to run like a business.
“No business can continue to spend $700,000 per year more than it brings in. So we informed PSA that we would need to discontinue the present arrangement and come up with a new arrangement, one that relied more on volunteers and less on the city and tax dollars.
According to numbers provided on the PSA’s website, the organization’s first season in 2017-18 serviced 1,526 players. In the 2018-19 season, that number grew by 193 for a total of 1,719 players across all the PSA’s offered sports.
