Maple Park Gym negotiations could affect volleyball league in Huntingburg

An adult volleyball league in Huntingburg may be affected by ongoing negotiations between the Huntingburg Parks Department and the Southwest Dubois School Corporation.

The league is in its third week of game play as Parks Director Jim Rueger and the School Corporation continue to negotiate the price for the use of the former Maple Park Elementary School gym.

Chad Schenk, assistant superintendent, attended the Park Board meeting on Monday to answer questions the board may have in regards to the lease. He reminded the board that right now the volleyball league is using the facility without a signed facility use request. “That’s something that puts you all in jeopardy, and the school corporation in jeopardy as well, in terms of liability,” he said.

Before last year’s league began, Rueger and Superintendent Terry Enlow negotiated an agreed upon price for the use of the gym. Enlow had originally asked for $2250 for the use of the gym three nights a week beginning in November and ending in March. Rueger was able to negotiate a lower price of $2000 to use the gym for the 2011 – 2012 season but the price would increase to $2250 for this year’s league.

“I told him at the end of the year last year that next year we will have to sit down and talk about this (price) before the league starts,” Enlow said. “He never came to me about the price and the first I heard about the volleyball was when the league started two weeks ago.”

In anticipation of the increased rate for the use of the gym, Rueger had raised the price from $125 to $150 for each team. He told the board this increased fee probably affected the lower registrations. “I raise the entry fee to cover my costs. Well, I don’t have enough teams for my co-ed league now,” Rueger told the board.

With the lower participation, Rueger only took in about $1950 for the league and stated he needed some money to purchase jackets and trophies for the champions  at the end of the season in addition to paying for the use of the gym.

Rather than reducing the price of the use of the gym for the parks department, Enlow offered that the Parks Department could reduce the $8000 the school corp pays for the use of League Stadium during the high school baseball season. Enlow told Rueger the school board had approved a $2500 reduction in the lease for League Stadium if the Parks Department wanted the school corporation to continue cleaning after the volleyball games; $2250 if the Parks Department would clean the gym after each night they played.

Rueger told the board that Clerk-Treasurer Tom Dippel recommended the two leases remain separate. To lower the lease payment he recommended they reduce the league to two days rather than three days a week. “Since we are going from three nights to two nights, I think our costs oughta go down,” Rueger told the board.

Park Board President Mike Fulkerson stated he understood the Park Board and school corporation needed to come to an agreement as quickly as possible but didn’t want to rush into a decision. In the end, the park board gave Rueger authorization to sign the lease if the school would reduce the price by one third for the use of the gym for two days rather than three.

Enlow stated Tuesday afternoon that he and Rueger had talked about reducing the price of the lease by a third if the league only used the gym two days a week. “I am willing to allow them to pay for two nights based on the revenue they have taken in” Enlow said. “I told him that I would give him two options. $2000 and we take care of the clean up, or I will take the one third off, making it about $1667, but they will have to be responsible for the cleanup.”

Enlow is standing fast on the extra cost for cleaning the gym. “Now the agreement last year did include them cleaning up after the games, but that didn’t occur. We didn’t hold their feet to the fire so to speak, we just took care of it, but it was a substantial cost to do so. We paid for an hour or two of wages each night to make sure the gym was locked and clean after they used it. If that’s two nights a week, we’ll pay over $1000 in wages during their season.”