Hello,
The past several days there have been many things written and said about Keizer Little League. Some things said are true, most are rumor and speculation, and some of it is borderline defamation. Many of you may have seen the KeizerTimes article in last week's paper that detailed the decision by the Keizer City Council to amend language in our contract with the city with regards to how concessions and tournament revenue is allocated at the Keizer Little League Park. The City Council also allowed the change to retroactively include revenue from 2017.
This amounted to $13,434 or half of the net concessions revenue and that was kept by Keizer Little League. We approached the city in January to ask for this change when we discovered the contract language that originally had 100% of the money going back into the complex. We felt that because of the significant investment in time, manpower, inventory expenses, and equipment needed to run the concession stand that an equitable split should have been 50/50.
This would incentivize any group in charge of the complex to work as hard as possible to maximize this asset which we did in 2017. We sat down with the city and provided ALL of our financial records. We accounted for every dime that was spent in 2017 for both the complex and our league. There is no missing money. I cannot emphasize this last point enough. Every dollar has been accounted for.
Many are asking the appropriate question of “where did that $13,000 go?”. The short answer is that every penny went into the kids. In 2017 Keizer Little League provided 39 scholarships to kids that requested one. There were an additional 58 families that had accounts with a remaining balance at the end of the year. We have forgiven that debt. In 2018 we provided scholarships for 42 kids, we provided free t-ball for 202 kids, and as of today there are still 42 accounts with a remaining balance.
That $13,000 gave 286 kids the opportunity to play this year. Little League mandates that we cannot turn a child away that wants to play because of financial limitations. We never have and we never will. We pay for the jersey, the hat, the insurance, the registration cost, and the field slot fees for the season.
We also continue to keep our player fees among the lowest in our district and certainly the lowest in Keizer. For those upset with the decision by Keizer City Council please ask yourself, would you rather that money have been spent on infield dirt or on the kids of the community. It’s an easy choice and the City Council made the right call.
As for the complex and the money spent there, I would argue that Keizer has not had a facility this nice to play at in many years. The past few years you have seen new playing surfaces, new fences, new scoreboards, and new mounds. People in the Willamette Valley are taking notice and they want to come to Keizer to play. That is due to the hard work and dedication of the Keizer Little League volunteers and the generous support of our sponsors like Keizer Rotary. We would encourage all of you to get involved and lend a hand when the notices go out and to help us keep polishing this gem that we have. There is still much work to be done.
Our greatest sin during this process is the fact that we were late with our 2017 field slot bill. This error should not have happened and we own that. We have paid the balance of $15,030 to the complex and we have already taken steps to make sure that it does not happen again. That money will be used to make additional improvements in the coming off season.
We hope this answers any questions you may have had and enlightened you on how we run our league. Our board won’t be engaging on social media as it serves no real purpose and we want to try and stay above the fray. We hope that no matter which team you play on, which league you belong to, or which player you cheer for that you have a positive experience in baseball or softball and enjoy your local community ball park. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Keizer Little League Board of Directors