This is what happens when prices are artificially low. When you realize that the revenues won't keep the trough full, people will naturally presume they're being ripped off when that's not the case at all.

For what it's worth, my kids payed $55.00 each to play Dixie Youth baseball and that was 8 years ago. I was on the board of the association, and I know first hand that it barely covered our expenses.

What you are saying is true but they hurt themselves a-lot with this vote.

I have been involved with youth sports for 20+ years.

The commission hurt themselves with the electorate.

They should have moved the cost over in a multi-step fashion instead of bailing all at once.

This will hurt children and their families when everyone is hurting due to the economy.

It was a badly handled affair.

It was a bad move by the commission. I sent all of them an e-mail explaining how they would damage small communities like Danville and Falkville if they passed this measure. I never heard back from any of them. After the measure was passed, I then e-mailed them all again telling them how they all have failed the communities they are supposed to be helping. I asked how they could justify doing this when just a couple of weeks ago they announced they were going to be under budget by at least $1.5 million dollars. I asked them why they wanted to burden the small communities when those same communities had leagues that were practically nonexistent because they were financially strapped before the county built the parks and started to help absorbing some of the costs of the leagues? I only heard back from one of them, Jeff Clark and he wants to explain the "details" that lead up to the decision. As somebody that has umpired in the county for over 10 years and also coaches in the league, I am already very familiar with the so called "details" and there is nothing they can say to me that would justify this move.

I want to know why all those details were not explained in the meeting and I also want to know why they would not answer David Woods' questions instead of with snarky and very unprofessional responses. I also think it was pretty lousy of them to pass the measure during a session that was held during the day, when they knew that most people that opposed it could not be there to speak out against it. The idea of a fundraiser for each league sounds real good, but the reality is that each league would have to raise several thousand dollars to cover these new expenses. In today's economic climate when even the most popular charities are struggling, it is a tall order for the leagues to be able to raise that much money. Also, the county runs the concession stands and will not let the leagues run them to help pay for the expenses. The county gets every bit of that concession money and I know there is a good bit left over after they pay the people that run the concessions, thought the county would like for us to believe otherwise. I would like to know where all that concession money is going?

Mr. Livingston's "tooting his own horn" about pay for lights at West (Sparkman) Park is laughable. The lights at West Park had been in disrepair for years and for a couple of years on one field, you could barely use it at night for anything because the lights we keep going out. It was only after years of griping and the fact the lights were failing, the county was basically forced to repair the lights. Also, for the last few years, we have been hearing that the fencing around the ball fields were going to be replaced since they are falling down all over the place. We hardly see any fences repaired, much less replaced.

Once again the Morgan County Commission had their mind made up before the vote and they did not care one bit what the public thought. I can't wait to see what pet projects each commissioner pour money into in the next year or too and then we will see what their real motivation was in passing this measure.