The city of Frederick and the new Frederick Keys ownership will combine to pay for a new scoreboard at Nymeo Field at Harry Grove Stadium, despite some reluctance from city aldermen as to how the project deal was done.
The city and the team will split the $ 100,000 cost approved by the aldermen on Thursday night in a purchase order for Strickler Signs of New Oxford, Pa., To install a new scoreboard in the stadium.
The aldermen voted 3-1 to approve the purchase order, subject to the team signing an agreement with the city to share the cost of the project. Alderman Derek Shackelford opposed the motion and Alderman Ben MacShane was absent.
The expected new owners, Attain Sports and Entertainment, already own and operate the Bowie Baysox. The company is in the process of purchasing the Keys from Keys Club owner Ken Young, who has owned the team for 15 years.
The stadium, which is owned by the city, had been “limping” for some time with the old scoreboard and had to send parts to Canada because they couldn’t get them repaired in the United States, Mark, director of Ministry of Public Works facilities. Lawrence told aldermen on Thursday.
He estimated that workers went to the stadium 15 times to repair the dashboard last year. The Keys’ schedule includes 30 home games.
“To have a functioning baseball stadium, you have to have a functioning scoreboard,” Lawrence said.
The city had reviewed plans to replace dashboards in fiscal 2020 and 2021 from contractors in Utah and Texas, marketing dashboards made in Korea and Canada, but they were not approved in because of doubts about costs and service, according to a report from city staff.
Strickler Signs was suggested by a Middletown company that the city was using to repair the existing dashboard, Lawrence said.
Shackelford and several of his colleagues expressed concern about the lack of a competitive bidding process for the project.
The lead time of around 15 weeks and the determination that there was no other vendor in the area who could do this type of work led to the decision to go to a single vendor, said Katie Barkdoll, director. budget and purchasing.
Although they had known the stadium had needed a new scoreboard for some time, it was not certain that the Keys would play in the stadium until fairly recently, she said.
Once they knew the Keys would resume their current league for the 2022 season, the city decided to go ahead with the project, Mayor Michael O’Connor said.
Barkdoll said that while this is not an ideal situation, it is not uncommon for the city to look to a single source for this type of purchase.
As Lawrence relayed the Keys’ agreement to pay half the cost of the project, several aldermen were reluctant to agree without something in writing.
Kelly Russell and Donna Kuzemchak both said they were uncomfortable voting without a signed agreement, but each voted in favor of the measure after a motion to make approval conditional on signature of an agreement.
After the scoreboard vote, the aldermen voted unanimously to approve a lease agreement for the Harry Grove stadium with Attain Sports and Entertainment – Frederick Keys, LLC, the company being purchased from the club from ball. No agreement has been finalized.
At Thursday night’s virtual meeting, Young thanked the Frederick community for these wonderful 15 years.
Meanwhile, Attain CEO Greg Baroni said his group of local owners intended to be active with the city and said he “really looks forward to a long partnership” between the team and the city.
Follow Ryan Marshall on Twitter: @RMarshallFNP
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