More than two years after taking over maintenance of athletic fields, the Medford Youth Athletic Association is hoping to have more of a dialogue with township officials.
Among its appointments to the Neighborhood Services Advisory Committee, council chose to have MYAA president Bill Mead join the board strictly as a representative for the athletic association. The appointment was made after Mead said the MYAA wanted to have more of a dialogue with township officials in 2015.
Mead said many people believe the township runs the organization because of the agreement between the two entities.
“The public perception is that we’re one of the same,” Mead said.” Recently, I’ve felt we’ve been separate and apart.”
In 2012, the township transferred maintenance to Medford’s athletic fields to the MYAA. Leagues and teams wanting to use the fields must pay a fee to the association.
Mead said the agreement has been successful. The MYAA has cut the cost of field maintenance from $136,000 at the time of the agreement down to $93,000. In addition, Mead said the MYAA has learned to save money in other areas such as electricity.
“We feel that (the fields) have actually improved over the last few years. In that respect, it has turned out to be a good thing,” Mead said.
The impetus behind their appearance at the council meeting wasn’t to make changes to the agreement, but rather to open discussion of other ways the MYAA can improve.
“It’s all about Medford and the kids and the town, and it’d be good if we just collaborate on things,” MYAA board member Tom Juliano said.
Members of council thought it was a good idea to meet with the MYAA, but also suggested they get involved with the township directly. Deputy Mayor Jeff Beenstock suggested naming a representative to the Neighborhood Services Advisory Committee. He said the MYAA plays such a large part in the township it was fitting it has a representative on the board.
“I think it’s important to have a person from MYAA on that board,” Beenstock said.
The MYAA formerly had a representative on the township’s recreation board, which was merged with other boards to form the Neighborhood Services Advisory Committee in 2013.
The board’s vice-chairman, James Geiger, said the MYAA has had a representative on Neighborhood Services since it started. He did not have a problem with council appointing Mead, but said he hoped it would make a commitment to being part of the board.
“The MYAA had a representative appointed by the council,” Geiger said. “That representative came to one meeting and didn’t come to other meetings. If you come as a MYAA representative, we’d like you to come all the time.”
In 2014, Steven Conger was listed as the MYAA’s representative on the board. Council moved Conger to an at-large position as part of its 2015 appointments.
Councilman Chris Buoni thought making the appointment of Mead as the MYAA representative was a good decision since the organization showed a commitment to keeping the fields nice for Medford’s youth athletes.
“Anything we can do to make improvements there, I think it’s a high interest,” Buoni said.
