BURTON CITY COUNCIL APPROVES BALLPARK USE AGREEMENT WITH FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS

  

The City of Burton and Burton Friends and Neighbors have finalized a formal license and use agreement for use of the city ballpark.

The Burton City Council unanimously approved the agreement during its meeting on Tuesday.  While the agreement with the nonprofit has existed in an informal capacity since Wayne Roberts deeded land to the city 20 years ago to use for a ballpark, the city desired a formal agreement so that all insurance needs and liabilities could be covered.

Mayor Karen Buck said the city is thankful for all of Friends and Neighbors’ contributions to the community.

The agreement also states that Friends and Neighbors will start paying for water used at the fields, going forward.  The point of paying for water used at the ballpark was brought up during the council’s discussions last month, when Buck stated that the city had covered over $23,000 in water cost for the ballpark dating back to 2003.

Darrell Kieke, one of several Friends and Neighbors representatives in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting, said he appreciated that the city and the organization could work together on this agreement and that he felt “we got to where we want to be.”  He asked if the council could officially state that the city did not ever expect the organization to pay the $23,000, as the discourse surrounding that has taken away from the group’s goal of improving the fields and supporting local youth and the community.

Buck responded that the city never discussed collecting that money, with Mayor Pro Tem Nathan Kalkhake affirming, “You do not owe us a dime.”  Kieke said Friends and Neighbors is happy to pay the water bill from now on to do its part in helping the city out, and the council repeated its thanks for what the nonprofit does for Burton. 

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the council:

• Held a public hearing and adopted the city’s 2025-26 general and water/sewer budgets.  The general budget accounts for $235,722 in income and $153,808 in expenses, as well as $126,181 in debt service fund revenue and $125,428 in debt service expenditures, leading to net income of $82,665.  The water/sewer budget is slated to received $260,708 in income and $252,721 in expenses, resulting in net income of $7,986.
• Approved a contract between the city and Josh Guelker for meter reader services.  The contract will be for $500 a month and is renewable every two years.
• Approved a resolution adopting a water conservation plan and reviewed new protocols for water outages and water well failure.  The items came after the city’s well outage in early February.
• Approved an engagement letter as submitted by Medack & Oltmann to complete the 2024-25 Fiscal Year audit.
• Reviewed the Washington County Appraisal District’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year.  No action was taken.