The land of Broadway Field is owned by the city, maintained by the park district and mostly used by the school district.

The city owns the land. The school district uses the fields. The Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District maintains them.

The park district’s board believes it is time to take a look at expenses and forecasts for Broadway Field and whether a new deal should replace an intergovernmental agreement from 2012.

“While the timing of this has certainly taken longer than ideal, it will stay on the forefront of our minds as we work toward a solution,” said Skyler Archibald, the park district’s executive director. “The staff of the district advise the board to continue pursuing a more balanced relationship with the other parties in this agreement while keeping the field open for community use.”

With a Title IX settlement from the U.S. Department of Education in July, an additional element is thrown into the mix. The resolution between the Seaside School District and the Office for Civil Rights requires improvements to the softball field, bringing it to an equivalent level as the baseball field. School Superintendent Susan Penrod said the cost of the renovations will be paid by the school district.

Any proposed change to usage or policies governing usage requires approval of the three parties.

The park district, school district and city typically meet every other month and talk about a wide array of topics. “We’ve actually had multiple conversations over the past year or so about the field,” Archibald said.

Celeste Bodner, a park district board member, said clarity is important.

“We need to be clear who is responsible for what so that we can inform the public that uses the field as to who to go to when they have something that needs to be done,” she said.

According to the agreement, the city owns the land and is responsible for litter control and custodial services for permanent restrooms.

As part of its role, the park district contributed $200,000 for field costs and provides ongoing field maintenance. This year, the park district budgeted $12,000 for maintenance from the Broadway Field Fund, about a third of the fund’s balance.

The school district also paid $200,000 for field cost. It is responsible for supervising time usage of the field.

According to a chart from the park district, the school district and their sports teams are the primary users of the fields, using the field almost two-thirds of the time in 2020 and more than 70% in 2019.

Seaside Kids, the park district and other recreation programs make up the remaining portion of field usage. “Almost every year, around 60% to 70% of the available time on the field are used by the school district,” Archibald said.

While the field needs repairs, he said, the park district has delayed those fixes to ensure that an appropriate timeline is followed. Out of that fund, the park district is to pay “all the expenses for equipment repair and maintenance.”

The field has already exceeded a life expectancy of eight to 10 years.

The agreement calls for the park district to establish a field replacement fund to receive money from user fees to help replace the fields. While the park district has a capital fund with some funds that could be allocated for replacement costs, it does not have a separate field replacement fund.

Revision of the agreement arose more than a year ago, when park district board members sought to limit what they saw as disproportionate field expenditures.

“This has been an item that has never left our mind but has recently gained some momentum as we are working to return programming and access to our pre-pandemic levels,” Archibald said.

The agreement runs until 2051. It calls for the city, park district and school district to jointly review the agreement after three years and at least once every five years after.