Hernando school, Brooksville clash over $18,000 softball field fee gap

A $18,000 fee gap over Tom Varn Park’s softball fields turned into a sharp public clash between Hernando County school and Brooksville leaders, with Hernando High School paying about $20,000 a year and the Hernando Youth League paying about $2,000.

The dispute came up at Hernando County’s interlocal government meeting on April 22, 2026, where Superintendent Ray Pinder objected to what he sees as an uneven deal for the city-owned softball stadium and youth fields in Brooksville. When Mayor Christa Tanner said the arrangement was fair and should not change, Pinder suggested the school district might need to build its own softball stadium if the city would not revisit the agreement.

Tanner took that as a threat against both the school and taxpayers. The exchange briefly sharpened before the tone cooled later in the meeting.

Tanner said the fee has not been increased since 1996 and is lower than what the district paid when the arrangement was first created. She also said Hernando High gets priority access for practices and games and pointed to recent city spending of about $600,000 on a new scoreboard and lighting at the facility.

School Board member Mark Johnson said the Hernando County School District has lost around $4 million in state funding and is looking for every possible cost saving. On the city side, Vice Mayor Thomas Bronson said Brooksville has also been forced to tighten its belt after losing Covid-era ARPA dollars and cutting its own benefits package to save taxpayers about $200,000 a year.

By the end of the discussion, School Board member Shannon Rodriguez said the current arrangement is a good deal for the district and that Hernando High likely does not have the money to build a new stadium. Pinder later apologized, and the meeting ended more amicably than it began.

The argument has deeper roots. A January 2023 Brooksville City Council agenda item put the Hernando Youth League’s softball field use at about $1.58 per hour, compared with the city’s standard $20 hourly rate, a difference then estimated at about $23,000. That same discussion said the league was founded in 1958, incorporated in 1972 and had used Tom Varn Park since the 1970s, serving about 1,500 children overall and about 200 girls in softball.

Tom Varn Park remains central to that history. Brooksville’s parks listing identifies youth softball fields and a softball stadium at the site, and says lighted sports areas must close by 11 p.m. unless authorized. The park was dedicated in Tom Varn’s honor in 1970, and Varn, a Brooksville native and former Hernando High athlete, helped start girls’ softball at the school in 1979.

The same interlocal meeting also touched on Eastside Elementary’s conversion into a K-8 campus, another reminder that school facilities, city property and county planning continue to overlap as Hernando grows.