10 minutes ago

Youth sports teams that play at West Deer’s Bairdford Park will now pay for any electricity they use while there, township Manager Dan Mator said.

The agreement ends a dispute of almost 20 years over who pays for what at the 94-acre township park — the taxpayers or the youth sports teams.

“If they don’t like our rules, those are our fields, they can go get their own fields,” Mator said.

Mator said the Deer Lakes Youth Baseball Association had at one point removed the lock on the park’s breaker box and replaced it with their own lock. By doing that, they had “unfettered access” to the electric panel, he said.

The township and baseball association had previously agreed that the association would contact the township each time they wanted to use the ball field so someone could unlock the box and turn on the lights, Mator said. The baseball association was supposed to pay the township $150 per game to use the lights.

Mator said the baseball association told him they removed the township’s lock because it had been vandalized. The baseball association didn’t immediately respond to a Tribune-Review request for comment.

“Whether it was vandalized or it was whole, who gave them the right to cut our lock off of our box and use our electricity?” Mator said.

Mator estimates it costs between $100 and $200 each time the baseball association uses the ball field lights.

For the past few months, the township has been billed roughly $900 a month for electric use at the park.

“Taxpayers are paying for somebody else to use our electricity,” Mator said.

The situation has since been rectified, Mator said. The township is invoicing the baseball association for electric use at the park since the beginning of the year, and the association has agreed to pay.

Since the baseball association was the one that replaced the lock, the township deemed them responsible, Mator said.

“When we brought the matter to their attention, they agreed to pay the electric bills,” Mator said Tuesday. “We are invoicing them for the usage, and made it clear that the taxpayers are not going to be on the hook for electricity not used by the township itself (especially unauthorized use).”

Supervisor Beverly Jordan has been involved with youth baseball since 2002. She said electricity at the park has been an ongoing issue. She thinks the association should pay for what they use.

“It would be nice after 18 years of being involved that we finally put a period to the end of this story,” Jordan said. “This has just been way too long. It’s just a nightmare.”

A lease agreement for use of park utilities has been drafted. The agreement says the organizations that use the park — including Deer Lakes Youth Baseball, Deer Lakes Youth Softball and Deer Lakes Youth Soccer — would be responsible for all utilities unless they are metered separately for the township. Use of the fields remains free.

The township will pay roughly $1,000 to install an electric meter at the park’s pavilion to also monitor electric use there, Mator said.

“In this situation you would have the pavilion metered and we would subtract that from the bill and that’s what they would be invoiced,” Mator said.

“I’m in complete agreement with that,” Jordan said.

Mator said the township is supportive of the teams, and helps out by letting them use the parks and fields. The township also works to improve those parks and fields to give the kids a better experience, Mator said.

“They’re a local organization and they’re a youth organization which we all support … but there’s a right way of doing things,” Mator said.

Madasyn Lee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Madasyn at 724-226-4702, mlee@triblive.com or via Twitter .