Aurora baseball diamonds to be funded by overdrawn parks reserve

$3M cost to be added to a reserve already overdrawn by $8.5M

Yorkregion.com
August 8, 2018
Teresa Latchford

The construction of two more baseball diamonds will help the sport continue to thrive.

Aurora King Baseball Association president Jamie Cole couldn’t be happier with Aurora town council’s decision to construct two new senior baseball diamonds on the former hallmark lands located at 100 Vandorf Rd.

“All of the baseball organizations in Aurora have been turning players away for years,” he said. “For house league, we have had to cut practice time in half and share a diamond this year.”

Between 2014 and 2017, registration increased from 553 to 1,062 players which meant increasing team numbers, playing Sunday nights and practicing on fields not appropriate to age groups.

Aurora has become a baseball town and with more diamonds, the association can expand the sport. As it stands, if a competitive baseball player doesn’t make Aurora’s single competitive team, the player is forced to look elsewhere to play.

“This will let us nurture the talent we have in our own backyard,” Cole added.

It also allows for hosting tournaments as the two diamonds. The Aurora Diggers attempted to host a tournament this year but were unable to acquire the diamond use they needed to do so.

The new diamonds will be versatile to the local associations, being able to accommodate players from 5 to 14 years of age and adult leagues.

Approval wasn’t a smooth ride. Town staff’s original proposal of two diamonds had residents calling for it to be kept as an income-generating commercial property while some councillors felt there should be one diamond and a multi-use rectangular sport field.

Not convinced the baseball diamond and multi-use field were positioned in the optimal way due to the logistics of the property, the idea was voted down and council considered one ball diamond and a soccer field, which was also turned down.

Following a lengthy discussion, the two baseball diamonds were approved.

The project is expected to cost $3 million, which is to be funded by the town’s development charges (DC) park reserve, which is already $8.5 million overdrawn.

Park DCs are collected from developers to ensure amenities, including diamonds, can be added as the community grows, according to Aurora’s deputy treasurer, Jason Gaertner.

“It is not uncommon for DC reserves to run a negative balance when a municipality is proactively planning for growth,” he added. “If municipalities wait to add services until the DCs have been collected, the level of service to the community will experience a temporary decline while the infrastructure catches up to the population growth.”

When asked if it was fiscally responsible to withdraw funds and count on DCs, which are not a guaranteed source of income, Gaertner said the town must find alternative interim funding sources until the funds from growth come in. Borrowing from reserves or external financing in the form of contractor line of credits or debentures are acceptable practices.

“For transparency purposes, the town allows any borrowing DC reserved to move into a negative position,” he said. “This negative position is then reduced as subsequent applicable DCs are collected.”