Park district cancels softball leagues 

By Chris Breach
cbreach@daily-journal.com

Officials with the Bourbonnais Township Park District said they had to make the difficult decision to cancel the adult softball leagues for the spring and summer at Diamond Point Park in Bourbonnais.

The park district informed team captains this past week that it was canceling the season due to lack of resources, funding and staffing. Nicole Jenkins, superintendent of recreation for BTPD, confirmed that at Monday’s board of commissioners meeting.

“It’s a multiple-issue thing that we’re looking at, and it’s not that it’s going to be gone forever,” Jenkins said. “But we are just kind of taking a look at everything right now and evaluating our programs and making sure that we’re doing right by the programs we’re offering, making sure that they’re done right and making sure that we’re doing things fiscally sound.”

Jenkins said after the department looked at how the finances and staffing were currently, it was the right decision to cancel the leagues.

“We do feel it was in the best interest to do so based on how we had it set for this year,” she said.

Set to start this spring were three slow pitch softball leagues, adult men’s, church and co-ed. Teams were to be guaranteed a minimum of 16 games.

Jenkins indicated the fees charged to the teams to participate weren’t going to be enough to cover the costs.

“After going over the budgets and things like that, and the way that the league is set up and staffing to make the league run efficiently, was really probably not the best thing for the park district,” she said. “It was really not the best thing when you look at being responsible with the taxpayer’s money.”

It’s not been determined how many teams were affected among the three leagues.

“The max we could take with the four fields that we have would have been 12 for each league,” said Jenkins, who added the park district will be reevaluating what it can offer in the future.

“It’s kind of a rebuilding year for us,” she said. “We’ve got to make sure we’re doing it right.”

By Chris Breach
cbreach@daily-journal.com

Officials with the Bourbonnais Township Park District said they had to make the difficult decision to cancel the adult softball leagues for the spring and summer at Diamond Point Park in Bourbonnais.

The park district informed team captains this past week that it was canceling the season due to lack of resources, funding and staffing. Nicole Jenkins, superintendent of recreation for BTPD, confirmed that at Monday’s board of commissioners meeting.

“It’s a multiple-issue thing that we’re looking at, and it’s not that it’s going to be gone forever,” Jenkins said. “But we are just kind of taking a look at everything right now and evaluating our programs and making sure that we’re doing right by the programs we’re offering, making sure that they’re done right and making sure that we’re doing things fiscally sound.”

Jenkins said after the department looked at how the finances and staffing were currently, it was the right decision to cancel the leagues.

“We do feel it was in the best interest to do so based on how we had it set for this year,” she said.

Set to start this spring were three slow pitch softball leagues, adult men’s, church and co-ed. Teams were to be guaranteed a minimum of 16 games.

Jenkins indicated the fees charged to the teams to participate weren’t going to be enough to cover the costs.

“After going over the budgets and things like that, and the way that the league is set up and staffing to make the league run efficiently, was really probably not the best thing for the park district,” she said. “It was really not the best thing when you look at being responsible with the taxpayer’s money.”

It’s not been determined how many teams were affected among the three leagues.

“The max we could take with the four fields that we have would have been 12 for each league,” said Jenkins, who added the park district will be reevaluating what it can offer in the future.

“It’s kind of a rebuilding year for us,” she said. “We’ve got to make sure we’re doing it right.”

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