After months of controversy, the Indian Trail Improvement District Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 on Wednesday, Feb. 19 to extend to the Acreage Athletic League a “nonprofit athletic user agreement” that would give the youth sports organization first priority in the use of the district’s athletic fields.
“I’m glad we’re at a place where for the most part everyone is fairly comfortable,” ITID President Elizabeth Accomando said.
The agreement also mandates Level 2, fingerprint-verified background checks for AAL volunteers and perhaps additional sexual abuse and molestation insurance for the organization.
Also, “anyone working directly with children from coaches… to team moms will have a badge identifying them,” AAL President Wendy Tirado told the board during its regular monthly meeting.
The agreement is a hybrid of the district’s standard service provider agreement (SPA) and the basic permitting process that was favored by some members of the board to keep the AAL at arm’s length for legal and administrative purposes.
The deal was reached after a January workshop and regular board meeting in which it became clear that the AAL was unlikely to get a renewal of the SPA it had held for some 30 years.
Since a disagreement between two competing girls flag football programs fractured the league in 2021, Indian Trail and ultimately the supervisors have been in the uncomfortable position of refereeing disputes within the sports league.
During Wednesday night’s discussion, Accomando emphasized that the agreement would put all the balls squarely back in the AAL’s court.
“Residents and parents will no longer be coming to us,” she said. “This separates us from that.”
One of the major benefits to the AAL of shifting to the nonprofit agreement is that it would no longer be under state-mandated reporting requirements for those holding a SPA with a government entity. Failure to meet those requirements can result in civil and criminal penalties.
ITID Supervisor Betty Argue, who has been the AAL’s strongest supporter on the board, continued to press for language that would give the organization exclusivity in the parks, but the effort drew little support. Nor did her push to extend the initial agreement beyond one year.
If all goes well, the agreement could be increased by up to four years, district staff noted. The AAL’s long-held SPA expired in November.
Argue accused district staff of “slow-walking” the effort to find accommodation with the AAL and said the league deserves more than a one-year agreement beginning in July “after all they’ve been put through.”
Supervisor Richard Vassalotti did succeed in adding a requirement to the agreement that the league begin collecting a non-resident user fee specified by the board from players who do not live within the Indian Trail Improvement District. The fee is expected to be $25 to $35.
District staff will help the AAL set up a database that will allow the league to verify where a player resides.
The all-volunteer AAL has been the provider of youth sports in ITID parks since the early 1990s. The organization currently provides leagues for baseball, basketball, co-ed and girls flag football, soccer, softball and tackle football.
The league recently named a number of new board members and made improvements to its web site, which can be found at www.acreageathleticleague.org.
