By Linda Sutter – March 14 2023

It appears the money bug is going around our County. With a high poverty rate and an increase in our sales tax for those fine roads the county keeps up, said no one ever, the increase to Fair goers to $15.00 just to walk through the door of the Fair, now the County decides to go after our youth.

The Little League is one of the few programs in Del Norte County that is family oriented for experiencing one of America’s past times. So when Chair of Little League Jodi Walker received a new contract from the County that demonstrated a cost of $8,406.06 to play baseball, she more than likely fell off her chair.

Immediately, Ms. Walker called for the Little League Board members to appear at a meeting. She also called for 4th District Supervisor Joey Borges to make an appearance and decide what to do. Once the meeting was over Joey Borges called Executive County Officer Neal Lopez to ask what could be done for this enormous out of reach cost towards our youth program.

A meeting was set to negotiate a price to rent the baseball fields that was reasonable. The Little League board members and their volunteers work hard to maintain the ball fields, clean the facilities that they use, cut the grass, paint the lines between bases, and assure the fields are kept in pristine condition for Del Norte County families to enjoy numerous games throughout the season.

The members met with Neal Lopez and were able to negotiate a price that started at $8,406.06 down to $2,086.28. Over $6,000 was saved.

The City and County should be able to offset the $2,086.28 especially since the public pays over $700,000 for a public pool that few can afford to use. It appears their priorities are very wrong.