Message From Kevin Sheehy
President, Scarborough Baseball Association
Regarding New User Fees
 
The Scarborough Baseball Association and its member youth groups – Birchmount Baseball League, East Toronto Baseball Association, West Hill Baseball League, Wexford-Agincourt Baseball League and the Scarborough Stingers – were taken aback by the city’s decision to implement hourly user fees for the diamonds we book, effective for the 2012 season.
 
We’ve estimated the new fees will total $50,000 to $60,000 for all our groups, and this will be after drastic cutbacks in diamond bookings for such contingencies as rain-outs and practice time. Without drastic reductions in booking, we had calculated new user fees would total $100,000 for youth baseball programs in Scarborough.
 
We learned about these new fees in February, leaving little time to respond to the city.
 
Officials from all our member groups and myself have contacted council members on this issue. There has also been significant lobbying from all baseball leagues across Toronto, the Toronto Baseball Association and Toronto Sports Council.
 
The impact on registration fees will range from $30 to $60 for house league players, not to mention additional costs for select programs. Scarborough Stingers rep players face an increase of $100 each.
 
Our main concern is the timing of the decision. We would like the city to defer these fees to allow us to come to the table to discuss alternatives.
 
WE NEED YOUR HELP, TOO! We need all our parents and volunteers to make their voices heard in two ways:
 
1) Email your local councillor, urging him/her to defer the new user fees for outdoor fields. You can find your local councillor’s contact information at this link: http://app.toronto.ca/im/council/councillors.jsp
 
2) Sign an electronic petition started by the Toronto Sports Council, at this link:
      http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/defer-new-permit-fees-for-2012/ (Please note that after
signing the petition it may ask for a Paypal donation, this is not required and your post for the petition will still go through.)