VERO BEACH — Five years after standing by and watching both major and minor league baseball abandon Dodgertown, Vero Beach and Indian River County now have placed the 2014 spring season for 500 Vero Beach Little Leaguers in jeopardy as the governments spar over funding.
Earlier this year, Vero City Council voted to slash funding for Vero Beach Little League and charge the organization $25,000 to use city fields.
Since approximately 70 percent of the players are county residents, Vero Beach Little League then turned to Indian River County for assistance.
“The county used to pay a prorated share,” said Vero City Manager Jim O’Connor.
But thus far, the county has shown no interest in kicking in funding.
“The city of Vero Beach is always trying to transfer their costs to the county,” said County Administrator Joe Baird. “The biggest problem Little League has is that they play on city fields, with electricity provided by Vero Beach city utilities. If they played on county fields, their electric costs would be 30 percent cheaper, because we use Florida Power and Light.”
Even Historic Dodgertown has shown little interest in helping out.
“We can’t even get to the table to negotiate with them. It’s one of the best places to play in the state, right here in our own backyard,” said G.T. Parris, who is in his first year as head of the Vero Beach Little League.
“If we could play on those fields Monday through Thursday, they could have them on the weekends. They said they’re not interested. How come we can’t play on those fields when they aren’t being used? I can work around any of their commitments.”
“It’s only been a year since we built the Little League fields. We’ve always been interested in being part of this community, and we have been since 1948,” said Craig Callan, vice Ppresident of Historic Dodgertown. “Last year, Vero Beach Little League used our fields and lights for two weeks. But we do have to watch out for wear-and-tear on the fields, because we have college teams coming to play. Scheduling is also an issue, because we have paying clients. We want to help as many people as we can, but we do have to keep our mission in sight. We aren’t a non-profit, and we aren’t the city.”
Caught in the middle is the Vero Beach Little League.
More than 500 children still pay $75 each to play in the Vero Beach Little League.
In previous years, Vero Beach Little League was divided into the American League and National League, but because of the recent financial woes, it has consolidated the two leagues into one.
“We pooled our resources because we were told by the city we’d be in a better position to negotiate. We are really just trying to find a place to play for our kids,” Parris said.
At present, the Vero Beach Little League can only afford to play at city-owned Michael Field at 12th Avenue and 26th Street and at Thompson Field, off of 16th Street near Rosewood Magnet School.
Little League representatives point out that they are paying the city $150 per team per game to use the fields, and that they’re still responsible for all the maintenance and liability.
Concession stand sales at games make only enough money to pay for necessities like fertilizer.
Little League is an independent non-profit organization that grants charters to its members.
Vero Beach Little League has one charter, while Gifford Little League has another. The two leagues operate independently.
As it happens, the county provides facilities, power and maintenance to the Gifford Little League based on requests from the Gifford community over the years to waive the charges.
