‘Spratt Fields’ at Fort Mill school still waiting on recommendation from county panel

The plan to put fields beside Riverview Elementary School hasn’t come to consensus for one county group, charged with recommending funding.

In April, Fort Mill School District leaders made their pitch to the county hospitality tax advisory committee for tentatively named Spratt Fields, a four-field plan on 26 acres at the school. The district asked that the county pay half of the $6.45 million total through hospitality tax revenue, collected on food and drink in unincorporated areas and used to promote tourism.

The idea is that the district could use the fields during the week, but have outside tournaments come in on weekends to draw tourists.

“Our goal is to make it attractive locally,” Assistant Superintendent Tommy Schmolze told the committee this spring, “but also to draw people from outside.”

The hospitality tax fund has about $5 million available, and an ability to bond $10 million more. Recreation facilities are a top goal for the funding, though it also provides marketing money for county events like the South Carolina Strawberry Festival.

York County Council has final say on hospitality tax spending. Council, at the recommendation of the advisory group, allocated $1 million this spring to the Clover School District for a waterpark addition to an aquatic center under construction. The advisory group also has a $4.9 million request for a recreation facility in Lake Wylie and a $1 million request for a film studio on the Catawba Indian Reservation pending.

At its Aug. 18 meeting, the advisory group voted to table the film studio proposal until more information is available, and recommend the full $4.9 million for Lake Wylie. Committee members plan to take that recommendation to a Sept. 8 county finance and operations committee meeting, after which it would go to Council for decision.

Former councilman and current advisory group member Tom Smith said the Lake Wylie and Fort Mill fields projects should be presented together Sept. 8. Otherwise Council might weigh either decision without a larger view of its options. Plus, Smith said, both plans have been pending for months.

“I think we owe it to these people to give them an answer,” he said.

Yet an odd series of events led to the group leaving its Aug. 18 meeting without a clear recommendation on Spratt Fields.

A motion to recommend the full $3.2 million stalled on a 4-4 vote after one group member left to make another appointment. The chairman considered tabling it before casting the deciding vote not to recommend the amount. A motion to recommend $2.4 million for the project, and stipulate the fields will be available at least 40 percent of the time to outside events, failed 4-3 after another member left prior to meeting’s end.

The group discussed meeting again prior to Sept. 8 to resume the issue, but set no date.

Concerns varied, from some members who fully supported the entire amount to some who believe the fields would be built with or without hospitality tax funding.

“Sports fields are going to get built regardless of what we do,” said committee member Chick Williams, who had a hard time resolving how a district can pass a $226 million capital bond package like Fort Mill did last spring, but still need $3.2 million from the county.

“I just can’t put that in my mind.”

Committee member Hannah Davis said she would like to see more stakeholders in the project, but sees the need for a project like Spratt Fields.

“The school districts are doing all they can to provide land, provide resources,” she said. “Recreation is an area that’s lacking.”

Smith saw both the Fort Mill and Lake Wylie projects, where the Clover School District is committed to help maintain fields, in the same light.

“The schools have taken on the burden because no one else has stepped up to the plate,” he said.

Committee chairman Watts Huckabee said he believes the fields in Fort Mill would be used more by the school district than tournaments, something the group tried to stipulate against in the second failed recommendation. His concern, as with others who voted down a recommendation thus far, is the impact too many large capital projects will have on the revenue stream that brings in about $2 million annually.

“There’s more tourism in the county than just sports tourism,” Huckabee said. “There’s not a whole lot of money left over.”

The group plans to gather one more time for a vote, which would put a recommendation for or against funding to the finance and operations committee. Council can accept that recommendation or chose to fund some, all or none of the project.

This story was originally published August 19, 2015 at 10:46 AM with the headline "‘Spratt Fields’ at Fort Mill school still waiting on recommendation from county panel."