By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

            The founders of Bronson Youth Sports, Inc., the town’s new youth recreation program, said Monday they ran into a problem when they inquired about using the old Bronson High School gymnasium for kids’ basketball.

            Angela and David Lambe told Bronson Town Council members Monday that they were told the former Bronson gym has been designated by the county for agricultural storage.

            “The commission told us they are using it for agricultural storage in the future,” Angela Lambe said.

     “They’re cutting a hole in the side of the building. They’re going to park their tractor equipment in there,” David Lambe added.

Levy County Commission Chairman John Meeks, a native of Bronson and a graduate of BHS, said he has heard nothing about using the gym for tractor storage and the matter hasn’t been discussed by county commissioners.

             The county commission owns the gym.

            Meeks, contacted by phone Wednesday night, said he doubts County Coordinator Wilbur Dean would commit to using the old gym for storage of tractors without consulting the county commission first.

            “I’m not saying someone didn’t make that statement, but we’re going to revisit it if they did make that statement,” Meeks said. He doesn’t think tractor storage would be an appropriate use for the historic gym.

            County commissioners have discussed using the gym for records storage. They had been allowing a church to use the gym for basketball games as long as the church provided liability insurance coverage.

            But the issue hasn’t come up in a board meeting for quite a while.

            Painting Park Court

            Angela Lambe said they talked to Bronson Middle High School about using their gym for practices, but she said BMHS has six teams using its gymnasium. She said Bronson Youth Sports can’t use the gym for practices.

            The Lambe’s secured a commitment from the town to cooperate in the purchase of a product known as Instacourt that can be used to paint the basketball court at James H. Cobb Park for practices. The court will be the program’s only practice area.

            David Lambe said the product can be purchased through Ace Hardware. His brother is the manager of Newberry Ace Hardware, but Lambe wants to keep the business local. He asked if the product could be purchased through Bronson Ace Hardware instead. Councilman Jason Hunt, who works for Bronson Ace Hardware, said he would ask if Instacourt can be ordered through Bronson Ace Hardware.

            Lambe wants to paint half of the James  H. Cobb Park basketball court blue with orange stripes and the other half orange with blue stripes to match the Bronson Middle High School colors.

            The couple also plans to convert the parking lot space directly behind the bathrooms next to the soccer field into an additional basketball play area using portable goals. The parking area is fenced off from moving traffic most of the time.

            Funding Complications

            When the Lambe’s founded Bronson Youth Sports to replace the town’s failing municipal youth recreation program, Bronson Parks and Recreation, the town council voted to give them $10,000 for the first year of operation to make necessary purchases like insurance coverage. But because the Lambe’s didn’t ask for the money early enough this year, Mayor Beatrice Roberts said the money was no longer available to them. She said the funds were allocated for use in fiscal year 2019/20. She said the fiscal year ended on Sept. 30, 2020.

            The Lambe’s, who have never dealt with government and weren’t aware they were required to ask for the money before Oct. 1, thought they could ask for the money anytime in 2020. Roberts said that while the $10,000 wasn’t available to them, the council set aside $8,000 for the second year of Bronson Youth Sports’ operation and they could tap into that money.

            The council has the power to amend its budget to give the Lambe’s access to the $10,000 in the current budget if it chooses to do so. The Lambe’s have literally spent hundreds of volunteer hours organizing and operating Bronson Youth Sports in its first year. They were hampered by the COVID-19 outbreak, like everyone else in the nation, and lost many of their youth participants. But they continue to work hard to make the program a success. When they first notified the council of their intent to found the sports program, there was talk of the Lambe’s giving the council monthly progress reports, but that never came to pass. Communication is important.

            Council members approved giving the Lambe’s the money needed for purchasing liability insurance pending review of the insurance contract by Town Attorney Steven Warm. Roberts once again had problems communicating with Warm via an internet link on a laptop. Warm couldn’t hear what Roberts was saying. The contract will be emailed to him for review.

            Angela Lambe said she and her husband are trying to cover the cost of a background check program for volunteers and coaches. The program isn’t what they anticipated. She said Babe Ruth, the organization they use for their baseball program, requires them to do a national background check through Babe Ruth rather than just a regular check. She said a second issue arose with the background checks. Parent volunteers don’t want to pay to enroll their children in the sports program and also pay for a background check to volunteer their time to work in the program. The Babe Ruth program provides for abuse prevention training. The trainees must watch 10 hour-long videos on abuse prevention and take a test to prove they watched the training videos.

            “That further ensures the safety of the kids,” she said.

            Missing Food

            Angela Lambe announced that “some things went missing from a concession stand.” The food belonged to the youth program.

            “I don’t know what we can do about that to make sure everybody knows not to take food and drink items, especially out of closed packages,” she said.

            Roberts said quite a few people have keys to the concession stand including Bronson Fire Rescue.

            Fire Chief Dennis Russell said he has one key that is used by his shift drivers to access the concession stand.

            “I questioned all my crew. My crew didn’t touch anything. My crew hasn’t been in there in 35 days,” Russell said.

            “I think it was a one-time thing,” Roberts said, assuring Lambe it won’t happen again.

———————-

Town of Bronson Regular Meeting December 21, 2020; Posted December 23, 2020