Letter to the editor

I would like to respond to Mr. Bradford’s questions concerning the admission prices and team fee assessments (City league basketball fan questions admission price, team fee assessment, Feb. 1).

First, the assessment fee of $325 is not as high as our surrounding towns. I have personally called some towns around us and they all charge higher fees to play basketball. I would question any town that is charging $150. They must be getting people out of the stand to referee the games.

The fee for the league is used to pay qualified officials. These officials are not on the city payroll. They are paid by the city from the fees for the league. They are only paid for the games they call. These same fees are used to pay scorekeepers.

Admission to city league basketball games has been charged for many years. The current admission price is $2 per night. One of the reasons for this is to offset the $5000 annual rent fee that the city pays to the school district for use of the gym.

A percentage of the fees of all city recreation programs that use the gym go to help offset this expense. The reason the fans are not charged at the softball games is because there is no rental cost for the fields. The city owns them. There is an hour time limit on softball games.

Mr. Bradford, can you go watch a high school basketball game for $2? Mr. Bradford, the city does not have 13 people working for the city league gym and collecting a paycheck off the city taxpayers’ money.

Those eight officials you were talking about are only paid for the games they call, and are not paid with taxpayers’ money. The city does keep two or three people on duty to open and close the gym. These workers are also on duty to maintain a safe environment so people can bring their families to the gym and watch basketball games.

Mr. Bradford, have you ever tried to keep score and run the clock at the same time? If you can, we would like to hire you next year.

City Parks Director

Robert Lightsey