Freshly mowed grass, sunflower seeds, snow cones and city council meetings. Though at first it may seem that such items have no correlation, the hot topic of the Southern Utah Cal Ripken State Tournament was heavily discussed at last week’s meeting of the Price City Council.
Representatives from Carbon’s branch of the league were in attendance Wednesday as the request for a $3,000 sponsorship was brought before the council.
At the start of the city’s fiscal year in July of this year, a total of $2,500 was reserved in the budget for sponsorships. After a recent donation, a total of $2,000 was left at the time of the meeting.
Not wanting to enter into the process of holding public meetings, the council opted to look at gifting a smaller amount and avoid a potentially drawn-out process with several deadlines looming.
The league, which is faced with the task of procuring a total of $15,000, has high hopes of hosting the tournament in Price and utilizing a variety of resources besides diamonds and hoping to help bring business to Price City. If the money is raised, the tournament is guaranteed for Price.
Five different classifications will be featured at the tournament, which is a mandated tournament for members of the league. Separate tournaments for eight, nine, 10, 11 and 12-year-olds are planned with an estimate of about 60 teams coming to the local area to participate.
A motion by council member Kathy Hanna-Smith was made to award a total of $1,500 at the meeting with council member Layne Miller seconding the motion. The motion was carried and will be put into effect.