By Kristin Bednarski
Sun staff
Batavia Township trustees approved a memorandum of understanding with the University of Cincinnati Clermont College during their Feb. 4 meeting after making a few changes to the document.
The memorandum of understanding, an agreement trustees have been working on with UC Clermont, pertaining to Brian Wilson Field, the baseball field funded by the Cincinnati Reds Community Fund.
Rex Parsons, Batavia Township administrator, said the memorandum of understanding highlights the maintenance and uses of the field.
The field is located at the Batavia Township Community Center and will be used by UC Clermont Cougars baseball team.
Reds Community Fund officials announced last summer that they would be funding renovations for the field so that the college could have a home baseball field to play games on.
“UC will be practicing and playing on the field,” Parsons said.
Parsons said the memorandum of understanding outlines what maintenance, including grass mowing, that the township will provide, and what maintenance, including field raking and more, that UC Clermont will provide.
“There are specific needs for the field, maintenance issues,” Parsons said.
Parsons said the document outlines what financial contributions each entity will be responsible for when it comes to maintenance and additional improvements.
He said the memorandum of understanding also allows UC Clermont to schedule other teams on Brian Wilson Field.
Trustees questioned if allowing UC to schedule the teams was a good idea, and they asked Parsons how everything would work.
Parsons said that because of additional maintenance and requirements for the field, UC Clermont can better handle other teams’ requests to use the field.
“We need someone who is going to monitor that,” Parsons said. “Unfortunately, we don’t have the weekend or evening staff to do that.”
Parsons said outside teams wanting to use the field will be able to schedule a time by contracting the township or UC Clermont.
“They can contact us and we will put them in touch with UC,” Parsons said.
Parsons said they will also be responsible for paying a fee that will take care of maintenance of the field before and after the game.
He said the agreement would be over a two-year period.
Trustees were hesitant to approve the agreement over two years, and discussed shortening the time period to see how the first year goes.
“I’d rather see this as a one year agreement,” Trustee Bill Dowdney said about the document. “Then you have the opportunity to tweak it.”
Dowdney suggested having the agreement be automatically renewed if no problems arise, Trustee Jim Sauls suggested leaving the automatic renewal off of the agreement.
Trustees requested the agreement be changed to a one year agreement, and approved it with the changes.
For more information about Brian Wilson Field visit www.bataviatwpoh.org . For more information about the Cincinnati Reds Community Fund visit http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/cin/community/rcf.jsp.