Henryetta school board members adopted a new rental policy for the school sports facilities.
At the Monday night April meeting, the board voted to charge $25 per hour to cover utilities as well as wear on equipment.
“We get into February and March and have a lot of little league teams who want to use our indoor softball facility,” said athletic director Justin Been.” In the past we have always allowed them to use it at no charge if we are not practicing,”. He went on to say that there has been no reimbursement for electricity or heat and somethings disappear or get broken.
“We hope down the road to do this for all our facilities. This is not to make a lot of money but to raise money for those facility upgrades.” He explained that included cost of grass on the fields, buying balls or nets and repairs to equipment. This year the school had two problems with scoreboards that cost of $800 in repairs. “If we could start charging user fees that could allow us to pull that money out for repairs.”
With the COVID pandemic as well as extreme cold weather, Been explained the sports programs have seen a 50 percent decrease in revenues.
“We have great facilities but don’t feel we can continue to foot the bill. Other places charge almost $80 per hour to use their facilities.”
Reservations at the softball hitting facility would be made by contacting HHS coach Ryan Swallow.
That proposal passed unanimously by the board and will start with the softball faciliy.