The service provider agreement between the Indian Trail Improvement District and the Acreage Athletic League expired on Friday, Nov. 15, and whether it will be renewed is an open question, ITID Supervisor Patricia Farrell said this week.
“I don’t know,” Farrell said. “I think changes need to be made within the [AAL] or through another organization or by the district. Right now, [the AAL] seems like a pretty dysfunctional group… They want to blame everyone else, but they need to look within.”
At the Wednesday, Nov. 13 meeting of the ITID Board of Supervisors, AAL President Wendy Tirado confirmed that she had verbally resigned at a Tuesday, Nov. 5 executive committee meeting and seemed to indicate that Board Member Geoff Grafton is in charge. The league’s web site lists Grafton as treasurer and continues to list Tirado as president. No vice president is listed.
Tirado could not be reached for comment, but she told the supervisors that she wants “a smooth transition for the athletic board,” and thus she plans to remain involved with the executive board. However, her role moving forward was not made clear.
AAL’s longtime Director of Marketing Daniel Duncan said this week that Tirado remains in charge and will continue to be so until at least the summer when new board elections are held. “She’s not going to walk away until someone is in place,” Duncan said.
Tirado joined the AAL’s executive board in 2016 and was named acting president in November 2022. In July 2023, she was elected to a full four-year term.
Amid the confusion, a Dec. 18 workshop meeting between the ITID and AAL boards has been postponed until at least January. No new date has been set.
ITID Supervisor Betty Argue, a longtime supporter of the AAL, made a motion that the league’s service provider agreement (SPA) be extended until Feb. 19, but it died for lack of a second. She then requested that a discussion item regarding the AAL be added to the agenda for the board’s Dec. 18 meeting.
Much of the wrangling between the ITID and AAL boards has been over requested information about the AAL’s inner workings and mandated changes to the AAL’s incorporation documents dating back months.
“We’ve been asking for the documentation for quite some time,” ITID President Elizabeth Accomando confirmed this week.
AAL officials claim that all the necessary paperwork has been filed with the state. ITID Parks & Recreation Director Kenny Lawrence said that as of Monday, Nov. 25, the district does not have all of the necessary documents that would allow it to move forward with possibly signing a new SPA with the AAL.
Farrell has not been shy about saying that concerns over how the AAL is run was a major motivator in her 2022 decision to seek election to the ITID board, which oversees roads, drainage and parks in the area.
“One of the reasons we’re talking about this now is because for months, the AAL hasn’t done one thing we’ve asked them to do,” Farrell said.
Duncan said that is untrue.
“The AAL does a phenomenal job documenting everything,” he said, adding that some of requests from ITID officials have been made only for the purpose of “making us look incompetent.”
Duncan pointed out that the league has provided athletic opportunities for youngsters in The Acreage and nearby communities for 30 years. Today, the AAL serves more than 1,000 young athletes in seven sports — baseball, basketball, co-ed flag football, girls flag football, soccer, softball and tackle football.
“We’re here for the children,” Ducan said. “A lot of them have problems at school or at home, and this is their escape. Unfortunately, what’s going on now is destroying friendships among parents, which destroys friendships among the kids.”
Meanwhile, with or without an agreement, the AAL has begun registering players for the spring 2025 baseball season, according to its web site. The season is scheduled to get underway in February.
In other business:
- The ITID supervisors learned that Acreage Community Park North will be closed through Dec. 31 for maintenance.
“Acreage Community Park’s South Expansion and Citrus Grove Park multipurpose fields have been lined and numbered,” Lawrence said. “Field spaces for teams practicing for Flags for the Cure have been assigned [there]. Any areas that have not been assigned/occupied are open to the public.”
Lawrence added that engineering is complete for the artificial turf football field planned for Acreage Community Park and permitting was expected to start this week.
- The supervisors voted 4-1 to require up to $2 million of sexual misconduct/molestation insurance for contractors, organizations and vendors doing business with ITID and coming in contact with minors. However, there will be a waiver procedure in place for groups and individuals who may not fall into either category, Andy Jimenez, vice president for Egis Insurance and Risk Advisors, told supervisors.
“There’s no cookie-cutter approach,” said Jimenez, calling the decision “a great move” to align the district with the standards of the insurance industry at no cost to ITID.
However, Argue said she believes the requirements are excessive.
“I’m concerned that we may be pricing people out of being able to do business with the district,” she said.
In the end, outgoing Supervisor Keith Jordano, a longtime insurance agency owner, was the only vote against the increased requirement. Jordano’s replacement on the board, Richard Vassalotti II, will take his seat at the Dec. 18 meeting.
- Grants Coordinator Scarlet Cantley made a presentation about grants awarded to the district. She noted that since 2021, some $3.3 million in grants have been awarded to the district; $1.1 million in grant projects have been recently completed; and $1.4 million are pending.
Argue asked that grant funds be sought for the renovation of the press box at Acreage Community Park North.
“It’s used by all of AAL for the coaches, for players and meetings,” she said. “It has been shut down for over a year. We need to fix that.”
- Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Darla Sauers reported that there were no significant problems at the annual Halloween block party on Citrus Grove Blvd. “From a law enforcement standpoint, it went very well,” she said.
