DATE: Thursday, July 31, 1997               TAG: 9707310400

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW DOLAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   57 lines

CHESAPEAKE MULLS INSTALLING LIGHTS ON PRIVATE FIELDS THE CITY COUNCIL STILL MUST APPROVE A TENTATIVE DEAL WITH A BASEBALL LEAGUE.

The city will spend $210,905 for outdoor lights for a youth baseball league's privately owned fields, if the City Council approves the tentative agreement next month.

On Aug. 26, the council is scheduled to review a proposed contract with Great Bridge Baseball Inc. to pay for the installation of lighting on three baseball fields at its Charlton-Mott Youth Complex, which opened two years ago.

The council delayed a decision on the lights last spring, after several members raised questions about public funding for a private enterprise.

But in small meetings with individual council members this summer, Great Bridge Baseball volunteers said that they provided something to Chesapeake's youth that the city did not: enough baseball fields.

Great Bridge Baseball - one of the nation's largest open-enrollment PONY leagues and home to 28 percent of the city's youth baseball players - spent $786,240 to build 12 baseball fields off Eason Road.

The baseball association said using public money to help a private, nonprofit organization would not be unique, citing municipal grants to groups such as the Chamber of Commerce and the Chesapeake Jubilee. City Budget Director Iris A. Hoskie confirmed that the Chamber received $19,200 and the Jubilee $30,000 during the last fiscal year.

Great Bridge Baseball's 1,357 players ages 6 and up use five city-owned fields, but the organization said it is willing to stop using lighted fields at Butts Road Primary School if the city builds new lights at Charlton-Mott. The league would pay for electricity.

In return for the lights, the baseball league would grant the city ``secondary use'' of the 90-acre complex's lighted and unlighted baseball and softball fields, the proposed agreement states.

``Great Bridge Baseball will have sole discretion in determining whether the city's proposed use of the fields at a particular time'' is appropriate, the proposal reads.

And even though several council members raised the issue, both Great Bridge Baseball and city Parks and Recreation Department officials said they did not know how often the city could use those fields for girls softball and soccer.

The city also would gain primary use of the complex's remaining open space between the fields.

But that right could be a temporary one under the agreement: ``Great Bridge Baseball reserves the right to expand its facilities into the open space areas as growth of the organization dictates.''

Blake Rawls, Great Bridge Baseball's president, said the agreement would give his organization the chance later on to buy the city-owned lights, which will depreciate 7 percent annually.

Still, the fate of this public-private partnership is unsure.

``You want to flip a coin now?'' Rawls said, adding that he hoped ``the City Council makes the right decision and lights these fields. They'll only be helping kids who want to play ball.'' ILLUSTRATION: Map

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