Parks Department gets OK to hire more staff for local baseball tourneys

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

SIKESTON — Sikeston has become a hotbed for baseball tournaments in the spring and summer and now more staff is needed to put on the games.

At Monday’s Sikeston City Council meeting, held over Zoom due to COVID-19, Council approved the hiring of 11 additional part-time/seasonal staff to work the weekend tournaments.

“Last year we hosted nine tournaments out at the complex due to other communities, cities and states shut down due to COVID,” said Dustin Care, director of Sikeston Parks and Recreation. “We became a hot spot for tournament play here and we as a staff were not equipped to handle that many tournaments.”

Care said they had three or four tournaments scheduled but that after COVID-19 came about the city quickly had an additional five or six tournaments that attracted teams from Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, Illinois and Indiana and teams from as far as Chicago that stayed in Sikeston for the weekend.

The positions include six ballfield maintenance workers, two Complex cleanup workers, two assistant concession stand managers and one tournament facility supervisor to ensure quality control.

Care said the cost of the salaries would be projected at $14,286. Last year, on average, each tournament brought in $10,000 in concession sales for a net balance of $31,768 in revenue. That revenue would cover the cost of hiring additional staff to work on weekends.

“We would be able to supplement the additional staffing needs out of our concessions revenue and still be left with a projected $17,000 in revenue that could be used to make other improvements to the Complex.”

Care added that there are currently nine tournaments already scheduled for this year, starting with the first weekend in May.

“All of May, with the exception of the last weekend, and every weekend in June has a tournament right now,” Care said. “We also have one tournament that is in July at the moment.”

He added more tournaments could still be booked and last year there was a tournament as late as September.

In other action at Monday’s meeting, Council:

• Approved a bill that puts in place a higher rate for those commercial and industrial users who discharge high strength wastewater. In addition to raising the strength and TSS surcharges, the ordinance also adds a strength multiplier for excessive strengths and allows the rate to be changed based on BMU’s annual costs without having to draft another ordinance. If proper pre-treatment is performed by the industries, they will not have to pay the surcharges.

“This is not a rate increase for everybody,” said Jeff Winders of Sikeston BMU. This effects mainly industries that discharge a high oxygen, basically their waste strength is higher than what would come from a house. When they discharge those high strengths we have to do extra stuff at the wastewater plant.”

• Appointed Lori Caldwell to serve on the SEMO University — Sikeston Advisory Council, filling the position of Timothy Greenway who withdrew from the Council.

• Accepted the donation of the building at 131 N. New Madrid Street in Sikeston. The city has leased the building for municipal court hearings since January 2013. Prior to that it was the MAB Paint Store. When David Strom was contacted to renew the lease on the building, he advised the Moore family wished to gift the property to the City in exchange for a tax gift letter.

• Awarded a bid of $27,183 to Midsouth for a fuel pump replacement. The city fuel site has been having severe issues with diesel fuel quality and it was found that the cause is damaged fuel lines between the city pump and BMU tanks. The city budgeted to replace the fuel pumps and allow for some repairs and also decided to have the line between the fuel site and the fire station generator replaced.

• Authorized staff to proceed with the 2021 Street and Drainage Improvement Program. (For more on this see story in Friday’s edition of the Standard Democrat)

• Extended the option between the City of Sikeston and Unilever. In December of 2017, the City of Sikeston and Unilever, executed a land swap where the city took possession of the vacated Unilever south plant on County Line Road and Unilever was granted an option to acquire 16.85 acres just south of their plant on Rose Parkway in the north industrial park. The option was valid for three years with the possibility of extending for an additional two years. The option was extended through Dec. 21, 2022.

• Heard from Mayor Steven Burch on the educational “Wear Because You Care” campaign that was created to promote awareness and the importance of wearing masks in public to control the spread of COVID-19. Several videos have been posted on social media, which have included Burch and other council members encouraging citizens to wear masks and of employees wearing their masks at the workplace. Burch said there has been a positive response from the campaign and other businesses are asking to be included.

• The next Sikeston City Council meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. Jan. 25.

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