The Municipality of Chatham-Kent is hoping to further discussions with the operator of a local flag football league.
On Monday night, council discussed the ongoing dispute between the municipality and Jason Reynolds.
Reynolds operates The Chatham-Kent Kids Flag Football League and has been running it out of Lark Park, located on Baldoon Road, for the past five years.
Throughout that time he said he has taken care of maintaining the field’s grass so that it is suitable for kids to play on. According to Reynolds, that includes spending up to five hours, once a week, mowing the grass on the field.
At the end of April, Jason Reynolds received a letter from the Municipality of Chatham-Kent’s legal department, informing him that it recently became aware that he had brought lawnmowers onto municipal property and has been cutting the grass at Lark Park.
The letter noted that his actions are a form of trespassing and in violation of the municipality’s by-law, adding that he was not permitted to cut the grass at the park unless he gets written permission from the municipality beforehand or he could be subject to an arrest.
After receiving the letter from the municipality, Reynolds posted a photo of it on his social media accounts.
It quickly drew attention, including from Mayor Darrin Canniff who asked for the matter to be brought to council during its May 10 meeting for discussion.
The report that went before council detailed the lengthy back and forth communication between the municipality and Reynolds over the past few years and highlighted several concerns surrounding the safety, liability and possible legal repercussions of a private citizen mowing municipal-owned property.
According to Chief Administrative Officer Don Shropshire, the municipality has attempted to reach out to Reynolds 90 times over the past few years to get him to stop cutting the field's grass because of the liability concerns connected to it.
Shropshire said as the story got more public attention, there also grew to be a public misunderstanding that the municipality was attempting to stop the league from playing altogether.
"There was never at any time any restrictions throughout the last few weeks that the league was not able to play as a result of this discussion," explained Shropshire. "There were restrictions put in place because of the provincial lockdown. There were no games that were missed as a result of these conversations... We do have some common goals and I think we can get there."
The Chatham-Kent Kids Flag Football League is open to boys and girls aged 5 to 17 and is a partner with Under Armour for its Under the Lights youth flag football program.
Reynolds said the league is meant to target underprivileged youth who may otherwise not have access to organized sports and claimed that without his frequent maintenance, the field would otherwise be unfit for physical activity.
According to the municipality, Lark Park grass cutting has been competitively sourced to a local contractor and receives an average of 22 cuts per year. However, Reynolds is pushing for it to be maintained on more of an as-needed basis.
During the discussion on Monday night, Councillor Brock McGregor brought forward a successful two-part motion in an effort to take the first steps in reaching a resolution between the two sides.
The motion directed staff to work with all groups that use Lark Park to identify long-term league needs, park viability and identity the requested service level for field maintenance while repeating safety and liability standards.
"The intention of this motion is to get stakeholders back to the table and to make requirements on all the needs moving forward really clear so that we can move forward... I'm hopeful that some clear outcomes can be reached so we can keep this league viable," McGregor said.
Additionally, McGregor's motion directed staff to develop a report with options to assist and promote the relaunching of youth sports and extracurricular activities in Chatham-Kent coinciding with the end of the provincial lockdown. McGregor requested that the report includes options and costs to temporarily waive the youth participant fee for the next two years.
McGregor said he recognizes that COVID-19 has had a major impact on the operation of all youth sports leagues and getting the leagues back up and running should remain a priority for the municipality.
"Temporarily waiving the per youth fee could allow some breathing room for organizations as they work to get their numbers back up," said McGregor.
Councillor Michael Bondy admitted that while Reynolds may not have "checked off all the boxes" when it comes to running his leagues, he said he was disappointed in how the municipality handled the situation, including sending the trespass letter to Reynolds, and that as a result, he believes it grew into an unnecessary public relations disaster.
While praising the efforts that Reynolds has put into building the league, Bondy said he was hopeful that municipal officials could communicate with him and that both sides could ultimately reach a compromise.
"I'm confident in our administration that we can come to terms, sit down with [Reynolds] and get all those boxes checked off... I think it's been a little embarrassing for the municipality. The argument kind of landed on grass cutting, I don't know if that was the real problem. If it was, it was clearly a solvable problem. I think as a municipality of this size, this is a little problem with big repercussions," Bondy said. "We can solve it, I'm confident we can do it, [McGregor's] motion gets to that point."
Following the meeting, Reynolds told Blackburn News that he was very happy with the solutions presented by McGregor and that both sides will get a chance to come to the table.
He added that he believes there was a disconnect in communication before.
"I love Chatham-Kent and playing a positive role with our youth and am willing to do whatever it takes on my end to ensure our kids are allowed to play flag football safely in the city we love," said Reynolds.
When questioned by Councillor Anthony Ceccacci about where communications broke down between the two sides and how the municipality got to this point, General Manager of Infrastructure and Engineering Thomas Kelly said it would be taken as a lesson learned.
"We haven't had this kind of issue with the 103 other [sports organizations in Chatham-Kent.] I think I'd like to have that same discussion with Mr. Reynolds," said Kelly. "As Councillor Bondy noted, we will certainly set up that meeting. Starting tomorrow, we will reach out to Mr. Reynolds and I'd like to ask him that question too because communication always takes two parties. We're concerned about what we can do to improve our process at this time."
According to Kelly, a report should come back to council in mid-June.
