Post Falls Council Revisits Ballfield Fees for Youth Baseball Leagues

A registration fee of $90 to $165 per child already folds in field-use costs for Post Falls Little League's nearly 420 players, but league president Chris Perkins told city council members April 8 that the more urgent number is what the city charges the organization itself, and whether that figure will force the league to raise what families pay or cut spending elsewhere.

The answer depends on which invoice you read. At the March 18 council meeting, vice president Pansy Baker described costs that had climbed steadily year after year. "Every season, it has gone up. That's, of course, to be expected with the number of people moving into our region," she said. Community member Bill Carlson, reacting to Baker's testimony, told the council: "I think a lot of people would be shocked to find out that a nonprofit Little League pays $12,000 a year to use a city field."

Parks and Recreation Director Kris Ammerman reviewed the records after that session and challenged the figure. Under a Memorandum of Understanding in place from 2020 through 2025, the city reduced fees by 50% and gave the league priority scheduling. Actual payments over those five years ran "more in the ballpark of $2,000 to $5,000," Ammerman said, adding that $12,000 bills from roughly a decade ago were never fully collected. "There's nothing that's even close to $12,000. I think years ago, maybe 10 years ago, there were bills of $12,000, but those were actually never paid. The city forgave some of those."

At the April 8 session, Perkins presented a 2023 invoice showing a potential charge of up to $14,000. Ammerman clarified that figure reflected a discrepancy between field times reserved and those actually billed, not an amount the league ever owed or paid.

The contested numbers matter because they shape what alternatives are realistic. Perkins, noting this is the league's 50th-anniversary year, framed the debate as one of civic obligation: "There is so much to be proud of. Our league is growing. We are winning district championships." Community member Steve Tsuji offered a more personal argument, telling the council that Legion baseball scholarships helped him through financially tight years and urging members to keep the program accessible.

Councilor Nathan Ziegler, who grew up playing on the same city fields now under discussion, said the scale of fees described caught him off guard. "This is news to me that the fees would be that exorbitant. I think it's very well within reason for us to consider this and take a look into the parks and recreation budget and see why this is what it is." Councilor Samantha Steigleder pressed the league on whether it independently absorbs field maintenance and repair costs, a line of questioning aimed at determining where municipal and league expenses actually overlap.

The city's obligation is genuine: maintaining, irrigating, lighting, and scheduling seven baseball fields carries real costs that municipal budgets must account for. Post Falls is no longer a small town absorbing those costs easily. The city ranked 70th among the nation's 100 fastest-growing cities from 2020 to 2024, adding 7,195 residents for an 18.6% population jump reaching 45,800. The 2026 population now sits near 49,000, and city planning projections put Post Falls at roughly 71,635 residents by 2035. The fee structure the council sets now will govern a significantly larger youth population within a decade.

The council did not adopt a final fee schedule April 8. Members directed staff to model alternative structures, including phased or conditional schedules and potential waivers for nonprofit organizations. A formal proposal is expected to return for a final vote after that analysis is complete. American Legion Baseball, which celebrated its centennial nationally in 2025, also uses city fields, giving the council's eventual decision a second youth program to account for when the numbers come back.