Program would allow for advertising banners on baseball fields, raise funds for park fund
By Kellen Olshefski
Editor
The City of Elkhorn Municipal Services and Utilities Committee voted in favor Monday night of a program that would promote local business and raise funds the for the city’s parks fund.
City of Elkhorn Parks and Recreation Director Wendy Meyer (formerly Ard) said Monday the program – which allows for advertising banners to be hung on outfield fencing – is something that recreation departments do in other cities and is something that has been done for the last few years in Harris Park. Meyer said she thinks it is something the recreation department should be in charge of, keeping funds collected to offset fees associated with the ball fields.
Meyer said she doesn’t know how well it will be accepted, though when the club leagues did it, they were able to fill up the field.
“It’s just another source, another way to raise money to go back into either the general fund or the park fund,” she said.
With the Sunset Park ball fields also being discussed, Alderman Gary Payson, Sr., said he’s received notification from city residents living near Sunset Park they fear advertising banners would block their view of the park and be somewhat of an eyesore.
Alderman Hoss Rehberg, who represents the part of the city on the Elkhorn Common Council, said constituents on Park Street have also contacted him sharing the concern they don’t think banners on fences would be aesthetically pleasing and would drop the value of their property.
Meyer said she too spoke with a resident from Park Street who was “very friendly,” but also adamant about not having signage put up on the Park Street side.
“I don’t live over there, but I would almost tend to agree with that,” Alderman Greg Huss said. “I don’t think I’d want a nice clean park, pool, with a bunch of advertising signs.”
Alderman Jim D’Alessandro said he wondered if there were possibilities for strategic placement on those fields that wouldn’t block views, speaking with residents in that district to see what might be acceptable.
“There’s got to be some spaces on the fence that’s acceptable, you would think, because that’s pretty common in communities, the banners on the fences,” he said.
Rehberg said the big difference is that most ball fields aren’t located in the center of a residential district.
Rehberg said being a liaison for the parks and recreation board, he believes the city and the parks and recreation department should be in charge of banners on at least Harris Park ball fields, even possibly Colt Field.
“I do think that should be something you should be in charge of and the city should benefit from the monies you collect because our fields do support these outside club leagues,” he said.
With Meyer’s memo to the committee listing other fees and additions – such as batting cages and new equipment – Rehberg said using collected monies for those purposes would benefit all organizations that use the fields.
Rehberg said he suggests starting the program at Harris Park and Colt Field, seeing what kind of response the city receives, and then possibly revisiting the idea of implementing it at Sunset Park at a later time.
“Let Sunset get developed, see how the year goes, and then maybe this is something next year that’s brought back,” he said. “At that point, we go to the neighbors in that area and have more of a town hall meeting and say, hey, this is what we’re looking to do and why we’re looking to do it, before it even comes to this point and get them on board.
“I just think right now they’re so against it that I guess I’d rather focus our energies, if you could sell all the banners over there, that would be great for the first year.”
City Administrator Sam Tapson said this would also give residents living near Sunset Park to visit the Harris Park fields, allowing them to determine if it is offensive and allow the city to see if it would even sell enough banners for the Sunset Park ball fields.
