By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

                Tri-County Athletic Commission was officially recognized Monday by Chiefland City Commissioners as a league authorized to use city recreational facilities.

            Commissioners voted 4-1, with Mayor Chris Jones in opposition, to approve a Facilities Use Agreement with TCAC identical to that of Chiefland Area Athletic Association, Chiefland’s longtime athletic organization.

            The board told TCAC officials at a March 8 board meeting that the organization would need to obtain non-profit status before the city commission would sign a Facilities Use Agreement with the group.

            City commissioners meanwhile allowed TCAC to use Buie Park as a base of operations even though it didn’t have non-profit status in March.

            The Internal Revenue Service notified TCAC in a recent letter that it had been granted status as a 501(c)(3).

            “Donors can deduct contributions they make to you under IRS Section 170. You’re also qualified to receive tax-deductible bequests, devises, transfers or gifts..,” the IRS letter said.

            Both organizations are entitled to use the athletic fields at Eddie Buie Park and Charles Strickland Park, but the city hasn’t figured out what happens when both organizations want the same facility at the same time.

            For many years, CAAA was relied upon as the city’s recreational youth program, but last year the organization ran into problems when dissatisfied parents broke free and formed TCAC.

            TCAC co-founder Victoria Larkin said the organization is trying hard to avoid any conflicts with CAAA by working with the Levy County School Board to use their facilities as well as other schools in the county.

            “There was one event we were thinking about doing at Strickland but we changed it so we’ve been doing everything out of Buie Park,” she said. “The Levy County School Board has done the same thing, first come-first served. We did our soccer league in Gainesville. Now we’re in Pop Warner, so we have four teams that will be in Pop Warner for football and cheer.”

            Larkin said TCAC submitted its request for use of school board fields and received a good reply.

            “We got the contract back. We could have all but one date because CAAA had that one,” she said. “There have been no issues, no conflict. Also, because we’re Tri-County Athletic Commission we’ve talked to several other schools and the school board and we’re able to use anything in Bronson, Williston, and Cedar Key and we’re working on that now, so any games that we have that we won’t be able to do at the high school (in Chiefland) we’ll be holding it at another location because we are able to use other locations.”

            “Unfortunately we’d like to keep the revenue here even though we’re tri-county. With that being said, there’s never going to be an issue with that,” she said.

            TCAC and CAAA are expected to practice “mutual cooperation” in scheduling games and events at city parks and athletic fields, but Commissioner Norman Weaver wondered what would happen if both organizations wanted to use the same park on the same day.

            “What if CAAA wants this particular park, which one gets first dibs? Mutual cooperation; what does that mean because it’s going to happen,” Weaver said.

            City Manager Laura Cain said she wasn’t certain.

            “That’s a very good question. I thought of that myself. I don’t know what the answer to the question is; CAAA is already established. We’ve been working with them for years. I wasn’t sure how you wanted me to handle the schedule should both of them want the same date at the same park,” she said.

            Jones threw out another question he described as theoretical.

            “What’s to stop in the future TCAC or CAAA, if there’s a disagreement again, and we have a third party firing up and we’re dealing with this again, theoretically speaking,” Jones said.

            No one on the commission responded.

            “I guess we’ll deal with that when we get there,” he said.

            Under the Facilities Use Agreement, the city has the right to terminate the contract for a specific violation of the contract within seven days or within 30 days for a different reason or no reason at all.

            The same rules apply to both leagues.

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City of Chiefland Regular Meeting June 28, 2021; Posted June 28, 2021