High school baseball coming to Greater Sudbury in 2012

What better way to help develop baseball in the City of Greater Sudbury but to introduce the sport at the high school level?

The City of North Bay has started the trend by offering baseball as an exhibition sport for the past two years. Five schools from that area participated this year.

The exciting thing about offering baseball in the North is that OFSAA hosts the provincial championship at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

It would seem that every time you speak to someone about baseball in the City of Greater Sudbury, they tell you that the sport is dying. I'm no doctor, but when someone tells me that someone or something that I love is dying, I will do whatever it takes to help revive it.

Many of us are finding problems, but not too many of us are trying to find solutions to those problems. When I spoke to an executive member of Sault Ste. Marie Minor Baseball, he told me that they had League meetings about why baseball was dying in Sault Ste Marie. This, in my opinion, is why an association like SSM Minor Baseball has run such successful programs for the past 20 years. They look at the problem and find solutions.

It seems that every baseball association is losing players to soccer. One parent explained it to me like this:

"My son or daughter fields a ground ball, when they go to throw the ball to first base, no one is there? Players are walking and stealing second, third and scoring on a wild throw consistently.

"This goes on for three hours! That's not baseball. So I registered my son in soccer.

"He gets to run around, kick the ball and the game is over in one hour."

Now, we can understand some of the frustrations that a baseball parent faces and why they would change sports -- not for the lack of interest in baseball, but the lack of development in the sport. How do we try and solve the problem?

My suggestion: high school baseball.

Players will get extra practice and playing time before they hit the field with their house league and travel teams in June. The league would begin on May 22 and wrap up with the finals and consolation finals on June 1. Two extra weeks of competition and games.

There will have to be some fine-tuning to the new high school exhibition sport, such as pitch count and number of teams, but this is not something that will prevent baseball from moving forward.

If you build it, they will come. -- and the City of Greater Sudbury is full of Baseball potential that is waiting to be developed.

City must borrow to service industry - The Sudbury Star - Ontario, CA

Is Greater Sudbury still the industrial leader of Northern Ontario?

Industry truly is the backbone of our community, employing about a large percent of the population. People in industry generally are above the average income in the city, earning roughly $47,000 per year. These businesses represent a large percentage of the total tax revenue for the city.

Even though these businesses represent the backbone of the city, they remain neglected by city staff, and seem to rank at the same level as an off-leash dog park in the minds of city councillors.

Recently, the numbers were released. It would cost the city $60 million to bring adequate levels of service, including water and wastewater, to these industrial parks within the community.

Many businesses within the industrial community are suffering, with many receiving inadequate water flow through fire hydrants, or the strong smell of sewage being generated from either collapsed wastewater lines of overused field beds.

With many of these businesses paying more than $250,000 per year in taxes, this lack of service requirements can hardly be ignored.

Recently, our newly elected council decided to look at funding options that could improve service levels to these areas. Although progress seems painstakingly slow, taking greater than 40 years for some businesses, perhaps we now have a council with the business vision to take the steps necessary to fix this problem.

From the business perspective, it is simple: we borrow the necessary funds to complete the projects as quickly as possible and use the property taxes from existing businesses, as well as new businesses moving into our community, to repay the amount.

If history has shown us anything, ignoring the problem, or resolving it over the coming years, will only result in greater costs, as the cost of supplies continues to increase. The $60-million price tag could easily surpass $100 million in the next decade, and result in the departure of established industrial business to communities in the North that provide adequate service levels, tax incentives, and a responsive municipal government.

The business community requires immediate action to resolve this situation, not solutions that will take the next four decades to implement. Council can no longer sit on the sidelines ignoring the deplorable state of service levels to these areas.

Council must reach out to this community to find a resolution, and make this a priority that surpasses the focus of building a new off-leash dog park.

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