Centerville School Board balks at IHCC's field rental proposal

Apr. 24—CENTERVILLE — Members of the Centerville school board balked this week at a proposed 10-year, $312,500 agreement to continue the district's use of Indian Hills Community College's baseball field for future seasons.

The update came via Centerville Schools Superintendent Mark Taylor at Monday's board meeting. He updated the Centerville Community School District Board of Education on the proposal floated to him this week from the college.

IHCC President Matt Thompson told The Courier Wednesday that the college has determined upgrades are needed to the lights and seating at Pat Daugherty Field, located on the college's Centerville campus. Thompson made clear, however, that Centerville High School will continue to have access to the field this summer regardless of whether or not an agreement is reached. He said he is hoping to continue a dialogue to find a solution that allows for sharing the costs of the necessary upgrades, which figure to be north of $1 million.

Currently, Thompson says, both Centerville High School and the college play about 31 home events a year at the field. The college's funding request is not a 50-50 split, however. Rather, the college is asking Centerville to put forth 25% of the expected upgrade cost.

Taylor told the board up front he thought the cost was beyond what the district could reasonably afford, and identified the board would need to eat the cost out of its general fund because the school district doesn't own the property. As it stands, the area of Pat Daugherty Field is owned by the City of Centerville — stemming from an agreement several years ago to secure grant funding for the lights at the field today. The college is working with the city to take the property back over into its ownership by buying the city out of its investment from a couple of decades ago.

As a result, Centerville Schools would not be able to use other funding sources, like the Physical Plant and Equipment Levy, to pay for what amounts to a lease of the field, Taylor said. Average gate revenue for high school varsity baseball contests is around $200, Wiskus said. The yearly ask, about $31,250, is roughly equivalent to half the cost of a teacher's salary at a time when the district needs to increase teacher salaries as part of a state law.

Centerville School Board President Kevin Wiskus discussed at length his opposition to the proposal while saying he fully supports the continuation of the baseball program going forward. He said paying this type of expense out of the general fund would mean the district could do less for teachers "and I think that's the wrong way to go."

"I am 100% in favor of baseball," Wiskus said. "I'm not saying we're going to cancel baseball. ... But if we're going to put capital-type money into it, we should own that capital asset."

Ultimately, Wiskus likened it to a landowner that didn't regularly maintain a property over time, and then going to tenants and demanding a 600% increase to pay for needed improvements.

"Every one of [those tenants] would move out," Wiskus said. "This community had an 80% bond approval rating to build their [new Centerville campus] out there and this is what we get in return for overwhelming support for them? Is a 600% increase in our rent. We're renting it for a reason — we're not owners."

No board members said they supported the request during Monday's meeting, and a few laughed once the dollar figure was disclosed. Taylor said he feels Thompson is a "good guy" and that he feels the college is genuine about its desire to find a solution all can agree on.

Taylor said he would work on some ideas and have additional dialogue with Thompson, and present it at the next board meeting. Those ideas also would include evaluating whether it would make more sense for the district to build a baseball field of its own.

Thompson said he met with the college's chief financial officer Wednesday morning to try and find a better solution.

"How can we look at things in a different light? Still realizing those expenses are there," Thompson said. "So we're putting together more information right now to be able to share with them and thinking about some different solutions that may exist."

Thompson said the college is open to donor funding or other public-private partnerships for the project, as well.

"I was hoping that we could establish what we would be doing moving forward the next 10 years, and if we need to go to 15 years to make it more of a potential opportunity I get it," Thompson said. "I also understand that they have different funding sources, just like we do, that can be used in certain ways. And so they have funds available potentially to build their own field. And if that's the choice they make, that's the choice they make.

"But there are additional costs that come along with that — maintenance, and so forth — and so to me it feels like we need to figure out how to make this happen. And I'll think we'll get somewhere."

There is a current agreement in place for the school district to pay $5,000 per year to use Pat Daugherty Field. However, the sides have not exchanged money since 2021 because the college was using Lakeview Elementary School and the turf at the district's football field as well.

Kyle Ocker is the editor of the Ottumwa Courier and the Oskaloosa Herald. He can be reached at kocker@ottumwacourier.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, and on Threads @Kyle_Ocker.