Simplot Millennium Park board looking for help

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This article was published 30/04/2016 (3644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Blake Stephens is quickly becoming a respectable groundskeeper at Simplot Millenium Park.

“Glen (Simard) and I have both rolled the groomer a few dozen hours to get the fields ready,” the Brandon Minor Baseball president said. “The park looks pretty good already.”

The eight diamonds just southeast of Brandon will see more than 250 people canvas them Monday to Thursday evenings starting May 9, but they need to be maintained. It is, however, difficult with just three men — Stephens, Simard and Bruce Luebke — on the Simplot board.

After BMB ran Simplot for the past half-dozen years, a new Simplot board of directors was formed last year — separate from BMB. Simard, Stephens, Luebke, Brett Nohr, Aaron Tycoles and Faron and Deb Asham were on it. Four of them have since stepped away for various reasons.

“We’re a pseudo-Millennium Park board and we’re looking for other people to join in and help out,” Stephens said, noting that they don’t necessarily have to be baseball junkies either.

To help make it easier to maintain the park over the course of the season, the Simplot board is trying something different.

“What we did this year to help with the running of the park is we contracted out the cutting of the grass,” Stephens said.

Greenedge Landscaping will be at Simplot twice a week to cut the grass from mid-May to mid-July and once a week after that until mid-September.

“This is the first time we’ve ever tendered it out and I think it’s going to work really good,” he said. “We spend between about $15,000 and $19,000 a year on wages, so getting it contracted it out was about $12,000, so we still have $6,000 or $7,000 to have a part-time worker out there. It’s sort of a test run.”

By contracting out the work, the board doesn’t have to worry about maintaining equipment or if a mower breaks down. Stephens said it’s a “little headache off our hands.”

However, the board is still in search of a part-time worker, who will be responsible for things like grooming the diamonds, cleaning bathrooms and emptying garbages.

Kelly Wright, who is Simplot’s supervisor, was even out grooming the diamonds on Thursday afternoon. But he will not be operating the concession stand.

Garth Boyechko will do that. He has committed to run the concession almost every Monday through Thursday and maintain the building.

Although an annual $5,000 grant from the City of Brandon, plus other grants, helps cover the costs associated with maintaining Simplot, allowing some 40 slo-pitch teams to play at the park this season will also help the board as it aims to break even. Last year it was about $5,000 in the red. BMB helped cover those losses.

“We’ve tried to look for other revenue streams and that’s one of the things that we’ve done this year is to rent fields out to slo-pitch,” Stephens said. “It’s sort of a win-win. They get quality diamonds at a very reasonable rate and we get a chance to help keep the fields looking good.”

Stephens is also optimistic about receiving assistance from the city in the future.

“With us now partnering with the Westman Youth Football Association to develop their fields … and with us providing a place for 40 slo-pitch teams to play, we’re hoping that the city will recognize what we are doing to provide opportunity for people to stay active in Brandon and we are hoping we can get into discussions with them to help us out either financially or with services,” Stephens said.

Ultimately, he doesn’t foresee a dip in the maintenance level of the park this summer.

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