Council OKs Wellness Park operating agreement with YMCA

The Washington YMCA will be operating the new Wellness Park on the north side of the city at least through 2021.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the Washington City Council approved a one-year operating agreement with the YMCA to oversee operations of the new baseball, softball and soccer fields.

City Administrator Brent Hinson said that the agreement is for this year only.

“We’ll give it a year and see how it works out,” Rosien said.

Under the agreement, the city will pay the YMCA a $40,000 operating fee for 2021.

Council member Fran Stigers, who voted against the agreement along with council member Steven Gault, took issue with the amount the city is paying to the YMCA.

“I think that’s too much,” Stigers said. “Eleven years ago, there were twice as many kids playing, and we were only paying them $17,000.”

Hinson replied, “I personally feel like the Y made a very reasonable proposal for this.”

As part of the agreement, the YMCA will keep proceeds from any concessions sold at the park Monday through Friday, another issue Stigers balked at.

“They’re going to make money hand over foot selling concessions,” Stigers said.

Outside groups can sell concessions on the weekends with city approval and a $200 fee paid to the YMCA.

Maintenance of the park will be funded with a $10-per-participant fee, which will be deposited into a Wellness Park operations and maintenance fund.

Any group wanting to charge admission fees to spectators must first get city approval, and the city may elect to receive a portion of the gate proceeds, which would be added to the operations and maintenance fund.

The YMCA will provide a wide range of youth and adult programming at the park and will control the master schedule.