Lee County has violated its lease agreement with the Boston Red Sox, missing deadlines for milestones on the road to building the team a new spring training facility.
Team officials have been there every step of the way though, and say the only deadline they really care about is Spring 2012, when they want to start playing games there.
“We’re much more concerned with the milestones ahead,” team chief operating officer Mike Dee said. “For site selection and for financing.”
Those deadlines loom June 1. How the county meets them will do much to show whether the 2012 deadline is met, Dee said.
“Those are the ones that are of greater concern,” he said.
But County Commissioner Brian Bigelow, who’s been a critic of the Sox deal since commissioners agreed to it in December, wants to know what the missed deadline could mean as the process of building the $50 million to $70 million complex moves forward.
“Where are we going to get the money? We don’t know,” he said. “How much is it going to cost? We don’t know. We were going to have that by the end of the year, but we don’t have it.”
County baseball consultant John Yarbrough said that neither the county nor the team anticipated 15 potential stadium sites. Trimming that list to nine, then trimming it again to four, took time.
“They understand sometimes thing don’t happen as you anticipate they will,” he said. “The Red Sox understand this process is moving fairly quickly for a county.”
A workshop briefing on county natural resources spending grew into a debate over the Red Sox stadium when commissioners ordered a program that caps abandoned wells continued.
The program, which Chairman Ray Judah said is saving 8 million gallons of fresh water a year, was placed on the chopping block as department heads mull mid-year budget cuts.
“I want to make certain that program is not terminated,” Judah said.
Commissioner Tammy Hall agreed, saying cuts shouldn’t fall on every county department equally but only where commissioners decide.
“Some departments have to cut,” she said. “Because of priorities this board sets some departments may not cut.”
County Manager Don Stilwell said the well-capping program is one of many choices commissioners will be offered, likely in April, and no programs should be eliminated without their direction.
“There’s not been any decision to cut anything,” he said. “The departments have looked at where they’d cut if they had to cut. I know you’re impatient. I’m impatient.”
Deputy county manager Bill Hammond said the county will be looking to hone in on what commissioners consider core services during a budget workshop in April.
“Because there are some programs we won’t be continuing,” he said.
“And, Baseball Bill, I think baseball needs to be one of them,” Bigelow said.
Hammond’s been involved in spring training baseball long enough to have the Minnesota Twins stadium at the Lee County Sports Complex named in his honor, and sits on the committee selecting the new Red Sox stadium site.
Bigelow said if the commissioners are going to talk about what the county should and should not spend money on baseball must be in the mix.
Bigelow said he doesn’t question the market for spring training baseball, just where the money comes from. He and Judah again disagreed over the source.
The financing scheme under consideration would have the county spend money from the unincorporated services account to pay for the stadium, then repay it with proceeds from bed taxes.
“The only viable funding source is property tax dollars collected in the unincorporated area,” Bigelow said.
“Let me say it one more time,” Judah countered. “We’re using bed tax money.”
Look for the argument to continue Tuesday, when commissioners are asked to approve a short-list of four potential sites for the new stadium. A county committee will negotiate with all four owners.
Dee said he expects to be directly involved with those talks.
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