The Landrum Youth Sports Association asked Landrum City Council Tuesday, Jan. 18 whether hospitality tax money could be used to help fund the program.
Youth sports association treasurer Tammy Cox said the organization is in dire need of funding.
She said the sports program brings to Landrum many people from other places. Those people eat at local restaurants, she said, and all that money goes back into the city’s hospitality tax.
“We’re wondering if we can get something monthly because we are hurting,” Cox said.
The city normally donates $2,000 per year to the association and decided a few months ago to increase the annual allotment to $3,000.
Cox said donations and sponsorships are down because of the economy, and the organization has never turned a child down, regardless of whether the parents can pay the fee.
“We’ve never turned down a child and we’ll never turn down a child,” Cox said.
Council members said they want to help the organization and said the city might be able to use hospitality tax for repairs to the baseball/football facilities. The Landrum Youth Sports Association has football, baseball and softball programs for area youth.
Cox said the association is trying to add a program for 13-to-15-year-olds this year and recently received approval to host Babe Ruth baseball tournaments.
Cox told council that another financial problem she is trying to resolve is a small piece of property the association owns and is paying taxes on. The Landrum Youth Sports Association is a nonprofit 501(C)(3) organization, which shouldn’t pay property tax. Cox also said the association has recently been paying a dumpster fee, which is more than $70 every two weeks. She said the garbage contractors previously had waived the fee.
Council directed Cox to get estimates on some repairs and said the city will look into getting the garbage fee waived.
Council asked Cox to return to the city’s February meeting with an update.