By TAMMIE TOLER
Princeton Times
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PRINCETON — After what looked like defeat last week, a proposal to send $50,000 in city funds to re-turf Hunnicutt Field picked up just enough support Monday night to slide across home plate and score on a vote of 3-2.
Although the $50,000 won’t come close to completing the $1.2 million project to install artificial turf and upgrade drainage systems at Hunnicutt Field, Mayor Dewey Russell said the city could possibly be the player that would control the future of professional baseball in Princeton.
As he explained the dilemma Monday, Russell said the project will require the involvement of both the Hunnicutt Foundation, a charitable organization that will likely fund a portion of the effort, and the Mercer County Board of Education, which owns Hunnicutt Field and has also been asked to pay a portion of the expenses associated with the new turf.
However, without the city’s commitment to the cause and to keeping Appalachian League baseball in Princeton, Russell said he doubted the school board would buy into the project, which would then leave the Hunnicutt Foundation with no team mates looking for a win in the local tourist attraction and summertime staple.
In fact, Russell worried that some people believed the Foundation and/or the school board would fund the entire project, if necessary.
“I’m not sure that’s going to happen, folks,” Russell said, emphasizing that the Board of Education had expressed a willingness to contribute to the effort, only if the City of Princeton also stood on deck, ready to step up to the plate as well.
Currently, Princeton Senior High School and Junior High baseball teams play on Hunnicutt Field in the spring, and the field then becomes the home of the Princeton Rays, a farm club that feeds players to the Tampa Bay Rays.
Although several projects had taken aim at the drainage problem in the damp area, none have managed to keep the field dry, and Russell said the only option left is artificial turf. If that upgrade happens, he expects the Rays to sign an extended contract to keep the club in Princeton; otherwise, Russell clearly thought the team would leave Princeton forever at the end of this season.
“Yes, we’ll still have Princeton High School and Princeton Junior High, but with the condition of the field, that’ll be all we have,” he said.
During last week’s Finance and Administration Commit-tee, panel members voted 4-1 to table the funding request, in Russell’s absence. Vice Mayor Patricia Wilson stood as the lone dissenter, after Princeton Finance Director Kelly Davis reported that she could not promise the city could shell out $50,000 for Hunnicutt Field improvements without having to cut the operating budget for the current fiscal year.
She indicated that although she understood the impact of baseball on Princeton as a community, the city’s bottom line on business and occupancy tax doesn’t increase when the Rays arrive in town each summer.
Monday, with Russell, leading the charge around the request’s opposition, Wilson reported that she’d asked Davis to tally the B&O tax that would come back to the city if a contracted firm came into Princeton to perform the Hunnicutt Field upgrades. Provided that the project is finished on a budget of $1.2 million, Wilson said approximately $12,000 would go back into the city’s coffers in the form of taxes.
“Right there’s a fourth that we’d be getting back,” she said, reminding her fellow councilmen that governing sometimes requires a leap of faith.
City Manager Wayne Shumate then countered that it would also be a leap of faith to assume that the money will be in the budget when the city needs it for other issues.
Undeterred, Wilson moved that the city contribute $50,000 to the effort, and Councilman Chris Stanley quickly seconded the motion.
Councilman Marshall Lytton, who serves as a member of the Princeton Baseball Association alongside Russell, continued to oppose the city’s commitment Monday.
“If we had it in our budget, I’d be the first in line to vote for it, but we do not have it in our budget,” he said.
However, other councilmen pointed out that there is approximately $300,000 in a “Rainy Day” fund set aside from previous budget surpluses.
“I would certainly consider the loss of Minor League baseball in Princeton to be a rainy day,” Stanley said.
After extended debate, Wilson amended her motion to include the requirement that the $50,000 be taken from the Rainy Day Fund, which should not affect city budget line items, and Stanley accepted the amendment. Though a tied vote threatened, with one vacant seat on council, it was averted when Wilson, Russell and Stanley backed the measure, Lytton and Councilman John Wilborn opposed it and Councilman Tim Ealy abstained from the vote, citing too little information on the will of Princeton’s people.
— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net.
