Appeal to stop Burnet field rental fees

December 10, 2012, 5:00 pm by Phil Schoch

Citizens of Burnet: We would like to take a few minutes of your time and inform you of what we as an organization and all other your organizations are facing at this time in regards to rental fees for the use of City of Burnet owned fields.

On Tuesday, Dec. 11 at 6:30 p.m. a proposal was to be presented to the City Council meeting that would allow the City of Burnet to start charging all youth organizations a field usage fee to any and all fields throughout the year. The proposed charge is $10/hour for each field used for the first year and an additional $1/hour every year until $15/hour is achieved.

At first you think that this in not that much money, but if you calculate it out for 4 teams to practice 3 times a week for 2 hours a day for 4 months; 10 hours for 4 Saturday home games; plus 2 hours a day for the 5-day camp that we put on, the total field usage fee for BYFL the first year is about $5,000 and approximately $7,500 in year 5. At this point our average enrollment is about 85 participants, which calculates to an additional $60 per participant for the first year and $90 per participant in year 5. We have worked extremely hard in trying to keep registration as feasible as possible, but as you can see from the above cost that BYFL will endure, these fees would increase registration tremendously.

This will not only impact the Burnet Youth Football League, but also Burnet Little League Baseball and soccer organizations. Therefore if you have a child(ren) that participates in more than one youth recreation program then you will be affected even more. At the $10/hour rate, Little League Baseball in Burnet will be charged over $15,000 the first year and around $22,000 in year 5.

So please if you have an opportunity and would like to keep the cost down for youth organizations, please be present at the City Council meeting on Tuesday, December 11th at 6:30 pm. The meeting will be held at the council chambers at the Burnet Municipal Airport located at 2302 S. Water St. - Burnet, TX.

This will not only affect our kids but many more to come.

Thank you for your time.

Burnet Youth Football League

Davis Keele, BYFL Board Member