PVAA Baseball Parents,

There are two major issues that are currently progressing through St. Johns County that have a direct effect on your children as it relates to athletics and especially baseball.  As many of you have seen, baseball is seeing unprecedented growth over the last four years.  We have invested into the park system and have come up with ways to expand our field space including adding two fields, in existing parks, over the last four years to help support the growth, but are now out of room.

Foreseeing the growth coming, over the last three years, we have been working with the county to come up with solutions.  The first was adding the two fields at Davis Park.  The second, is working to get lights added to Cornerstone Park to allow for usage of the park responsibly after dark.  The third, is the addition of Nocatee Park.  The first option is done, but the last two options depend on you and the community to show their support.

Here are some details about what's next for Cornerstone Park.  November 1st, the County Commissioners will vote to approve a zoning variance to allow for lights to be added to Cornerstone Park.  There are two ways you can support the Cornerstone Park upgrades; one, you can write an email to all of the County Commissioners in support of the lights and/or two, attend the County Commissioners meeting on the 1st to show your support.  There is a lot of false information out there about the Cornerstone Park Improvements.  Attached is an outline of the facts of the project.

Here are some details about the referendum that impacts the future Nocatee Park.  The St Johns County Board of Commissioners recently approved a ballot initiative for an additional $0.01 increase to the county sales tax to fund a list of infrastructure projects that have been on hold due to lack of adequate funding. Estimates provided to the Board of Commissioners value these backlogged projects to be in the $500 million dollar range. Revenue gained from the increase will be used solely for funding infrastructure projects (no administrative costs or salaries) and those proposed projects will be reviewed by a five-member Citizens Advisory Committee prior to submission to the County Board of Commissioners. The $0.01 increase will end after 10 years and may only be extended by an incremental referendum passed by the voters of St Johns County.

After reviewing this initiative with St Johns County officials, our PVAA Board of Directors, and subsequently the PVAA Baseball Board of Directors, unanimously approved a motion to support the proposed $0.01 increase in the sales tax as proposed on November 8 General Election Ballot. Our board feels the infrastructure upgrades are long overdue and the incremental investment will help PVAA provide more kids the opportunity to play sports in a safe and competitive environment. Here are the reasons behind our board’s support of this referendum:

• The infrastructure project list will directly benefit PVAA sports, their facilities, and families.
• Nocatee Park - $16MM. (Greater soccer, lacrosse, and baseball capacity).
• Road expansions - $29MM. (Mickler Road to Roundabout; Roscoe Road to Roundabout)
• Sidewalks - $ 6MM. (in addition to recent $4MM grant to connect Palm Valley Rd)
• Recent studies show 40% of this increase will be paid by residents from other counties.
• Without this immediate revenue increase, funding for parks expansion in the Ponte Vedra area will not occur until well into the future, which will have little to no positive impact on your children.
• The only revenue option would be millage rate increase, which our board felt was not a responsible solution at this time.
• PVAA has requested a say in how the revenue is spent. We have volunteered to provide a representative to sit on the citizen’s advisory committee to help steer funding the parks and recreation.

Immediate expansion and investment in our parks and recreation facilities are critical for PVAA athletic leagues, including baseball, to continue to serve as many children of St Johns County as possible. Our Board of Directors believes this 1 penny sales tax increase is the most responsible method to fund infrastructure
investment and provide PVAA the facilities required to offer as many kids a positive athletic experience as possible. We encourage each of our parents to review and vote yes to this proposed referendum.  More information about the 1 cent sales tax can be found here https://betterstjohnsplan.com/ 

Sincerely,

Matt Weiss

PVAA Baseball President

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