New recreation fee for non-Valley Stream residents

The Valley Stream Village Board of Trustees recently passed a resolution that will require non-resident participants for all team sports played at the village’s recreational facilities to pay an $18 fee.

The resolution was passed at the board’s March 19 work session and is now in effect for all team sports leagues that have yet to collect registration fees for its upcoming season. Many baseball and softball leagues have already collected their fees, including the Valley Stream Baseball League.

“Any league collecting money from March 19 forward would have to collect the fee,” said Mayor Ed Fare. He added of baseball and softball leagues, “When they put out their registration fees in September, they’ll include it.”

According to the organization’s vice president, Rich Graves, the Valley Stream Baseball League began collecting registration fees in September 2011 for the upcoming 2012 spring season and have approximately 400-500 kids in the league from all four school districts in Valley Stream.

Graves said he planned on reaching out to village officials for more information on the resolution. “That could impact sports in the future,” Graves said. “Right now I work to keep costs down, we budget for pennies — equipment, balls, umpires, uniforms, insurance. Right now Tee Ball is $75, if you added $18 per kid, you’d be increasing prices by 20 percent.”

Mayor Ed Fare said the resolution was put in place in part to maintain the programs village residents have to come to enjoy. “Residents in general pay for, and expect, a high level of service, whether it’s recreation programs or services,” Fare said. “And they expect a certain amount of programs for their tax dollars.”

He added that with this new fee, non-village residents will be paying a fair share and still get to use village fields and facilities.

“When you have non-residents that are afforded the same exact opportunity as a resident,” Fare said, “our residents, and rightfully so, say, ‘Hey, what the heck? Why am I paying taxes and these people that live outside the incorporated village are getting the same services and programs that I get?’”

Trustee Dermond Thomas said the resolution was put in place to be consistent with the village’s other usage fees. He cited the skate park fee structure where village residents pay $18 for an annual membership while Central High School District residents pay $55.

“The spread is like that so village residents don’t have to pay the same amount in fees because if you think about it, they’re really paying twice,” Thomas said. “They pay in tax dollars for the facility and they also pay a small fee to use it.

“From a taxpayer’s perspective,” Thomas added, “if they’re paying through their tax dollars then it only makes sense for them to have, in comparison, a reduced fee to have access to the same facilities as non-residents.”

Fare said if there is a league that only has a few participants from the village, instead of cancelling the program altogether, charging a fee to non-residents could enable the program to remain open by broadening the number of participants.

Village Clerk Bob Barra said there are currently ongoing discussions about the resolution’s impact of school sports teams that use village facilities. Many of Central High School’s teams play at Firemen’s Field.