By Jessie Burchette
Salisbury Post
County commissioners are being asked to continue a cut-rate lease on Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium through 2015.
Shortly after Smith Family Baseball bought the Intimidators franchise in 2005, the county agreed to cut the annual lease rate of $150,000 in half. Smith Family Baseball agreed to provide more of the maintenance for the stadium property off Lane Street in Kannapolis.
Commissioners have said repeatedly that the $75,000 rate would not be extended beyond the 2007 season.
The stadium is jointly owned by the county and the city of Kannapolis.
On Monday night, commissioners will consider a request from Smith Family Baseball to extend the $75,000 flat rate through 2015. That includes the remainder of the initial 15 year lease approved in 1995 and an option for an additional five years.
In a letter to County Attorney Jay Dees, an attorney for Smith Family Baseball offers to handle landscaping of the stadium and adjacent property owned by the county and the city of Kannapolis. The attorney, Lyman G. Bullard Jr., of Boston, Mass., proposes that beginning in 2009, the annual rent would increase by the consumer price index for the preceding year.
Dees said he had advised Bullard the flat rate would not be acceptable.
In an e-mail to commissioners, Dees noted the landscape maintenance represents about $30,000 a year. He noted the offer does not address other maintenance issues including work that may need to be done to deal with construction issues including water penetration in the kitchen and clubhouse/lockers.
Other matters before the Board of Commissioners include:
– Hearing a request from the Parks and Recreation Commission for the county to accept a log cabin from the family of the late Rep. Eugene McCombs family and place it at Dan Nicholas Park.
– Consider a request from Sheriff George Wilhelm to hire one of his deputies to design and mail a survey to county residents determining current and future support of building a new jail.
– Conduct a quasi-judicial hearing on a request by Plantation Ridge Partnership to build a 170 lot single-family cluster residential subdivision on approximately 119 acres of a 197-acre tract off the south side of N.C. 150 in the Atwell Township.
Leo Wallace of Salisbury is the developer of Yorkshire Farms.
– Receive an update on getting meetings of the board of commissioners shown on the Cabarrus government access channels on Time Warner.
Currently, residents in the southern end of the county who received the Cabarrus channel can view the Cabarrus commissioners
The Rowan County Board of Commissioners meet at 7 p.m. Monday in the J. Newton Cohen Sr. Meeting Room, County Administrative Offices Building.