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The Champion, Thursday, December 17 - 23,2015 LOCAL
Lack of field-use agreement threatens youth soccer program
by Andrew Cauthen
andrew@dekalbchamp.com
One of the states oldest youth soccer pro
grams is in danger of turning potential players
away due to lack of a field usage agreement with
the county
“We don’t have enough field space,” said Da
vid Dicaprio, who spoke to the DeKalb County
Board of Commissioners Dec. 8 on behalf of the
Decatur-DeKalb YMCA Soccer Club (DDY).
“Parents that have children in this program are
anxious about field space for this upcoming spring
season.”
Dicaprio said the 48-year-old Decatur-
DeKalb YMCA Soccer Club has been using coun
ty-owned fields at Wade Walker and Avondale
Dunaire parks “for many years, but has been un
able to finalize a user agreement with the county.”
“The YMCA has substantial funds available
to invest in these fields for [its] and the publics
use, but that would require a usage agreement,”
Dicaprio said. “The county has many such agree
ments—Medlock Park with Druid Hills Baseball;
Henderson Park with Tucker Soccer; Pleasantdale
Park with Chief Soccer; and many other youth
football clubs.
“But DDY, for some reason, has been unable
to secure such an agreement with the county for
many years now,” Dicaprio said.
“The program continues to grow and is con
cerned about having to turn kids away for the first
time ever, if enough fields are not secured,” he
said.
DeKalb resident Amy Lettes told commis
sioners she is the “mother of four children, all of
whom have played soccer in DeKalb County.”
Calling the DDY soccer program “a truly
unique program,” Lettes said, “I am here asking
for help in expediting the usage agreement.”
Noting that during the past season more than
2,000 kids played soccer, Lettes said the soccer
program is “the largest youth program of any club
of any sport in DeKalb County.
“DDY offers over $70,000 in scholarships a
year,” she said. “DDY is committed to giving every
child who wants to play soccer the opportunity to
play regardless of the ability to pay.”
The city of Decatur recently recog
nized Jeff Newbury, DDY’s director of coach
ing, as a hometown hero, Lettes said.
“Through DDY, hundreds of kids are not only
playing soccer, but are being provided tutoring,
life mentoring, .. .transportation, and training by
members of the DDY community,” she said.
According to Roy Wilson, the county’s direc
tor of recreation parks and cultural affairs, the
county’s athletics received a request for field us
age from DDY on Nov. 9 for the February 2016 to
February 2017 season.
The request was to use the Avondale Dun
aire site exclusively. That request is for two fields
Sundays through Saturdays. DYY also wants to
use five fields at Wade Walker Park on Sundays
through Saturdays.
Approval of the DDY field request for Avon
dale Dunnaire would eliminate Sunday field usage
by the Naciones De Cetroamerica, said Wilson in
an email to The Champion. “We would also elimi
nate field usage for the Stone Mountain Youth
Soccer Association (SMYSA) and the Georgia
Youth Academy Soccer (GYSA) at Wade Walker
Park Sunday through Saturday.”
Currently at Wade Walker Park, DDY has ex
clusive usage of three fields, SMYSA has exclusive
usage of one field and SYMSA and GYSA share
usage of a field, Wilson stated.
DeKalb County Athletics currently uses one
field as a rotation field to assign clubs due to clo
sure of fields for maintenance.
“We have a total of eight clubs that play out of
Wade Walker Park and it is our intent to try our
best to accommodate each club with some type of
field use,” Wilson stated.
DDY doesn’t own any fields. Instead it uses,
with permission, approximately 16 fields, includ
ing fields at DeKalb School of the Arts, Friends
School, Mason Mill Parks, Columbia Seminary
and Southeast Athletic Complex.
Dicaprio, who asked commissioners to help
the county’s parks and recreation department to
complete DDY’s usage request, said he has been
told the county will “have an answer in the near
future.”
“We’re excited about this answer,” Dicaprio
said. “We’re excited and anxious about the work
that parks and recreation is currently doing to
finalize the agreement that has been in front of
them for some time now.”
Indian Creek Middle School students perform at Clarkston’s annual Christmas tree lighting event.
LIGHTING Continued From Page 11A
ents and children formed a line going into
the Woman’s Club to take pictures with
Santa.
Barker added, “It’s amazing how even
with different cultures and different reli
gions, the Clarkston community can come
together and celebrate what is truly an
American tradition.”
City staff provided punch, cookies and
gave out 150 gifts bags to children who
attended.
“We were very pleased with the suc
cess and everybody was impressed with
how smoothly things operated,” Barker
said.
Lithonia officials discuss
proposed 2016 budget
by Carla Parker
carla@dekalbchamp.com
Lithonia has begun hold
ing public hearings for its fis
cal year 2016 budget.
The Lithonia City Council
is scheduled to approve the
budget Dec. 21 at a special
called council meeting prior to
its regular work session. The
2016 budget is projected to be
$1,062,618, which would be
0.52 percent, or $5,528, more
than the projected 2015 bud
get of $1,057,090.
The city does not antici
pate a property tax increase.
Some of the highlights of
the proposed budget include
installation of a swipe card
machine at the city clerk’s win
dow to increase the methods
of payments for permits; de
veloping an Indigent Defense
Policy for court services to
determine the needs of de
fendants; and relocating the
public works department to an
existing city structure and de
molition of the current facility.
The budget also will cover
a license plate reader for one
additional police car through
a nationwide program. Al
though the program calls for a
50 percent sharing of revenue,
it saves the city $25,000 on the
purchase of new equipment,
according to the city.
Lithonia Mayor Deborah
Jackson said the numbers for
2015 and 2016 may look dif
ferent because city officials
made sure items are in the
proper line item.
“We have to use a more
formal chart of accounts,” she
said. “Next year going forward
the numbers should line up
more correctly. Everything is
accounted for.”
Jackson also pointed out
the drop in technical and en
gineer services. The cost went
from $32,000 in the 2015 bud
get to 3,500 in the proposed
2016 budget.
“[The 2015 cost] includes
contract services for our
stormwater program, and that
shouldn’t be a part of the op
erating budget so that’s been
pulled out,” Jackson said. “We
will actually have a separate
stormwater budget that will
cover that cost.”