The first year of operation of the McComb Ravens youth football teams by the city recreation department will allow 60 McComb and area youth the oppotunity to play in the city and on the road.
It may incur more expense than originally anticipated, however.
Recreation Director Joyce Smith told selectmen on Tuesday that there is a $300 league fee that helps pay for trophies at the end of the season, and the department’s transportation agreement with the city school district calls for payment of $1.75 per mile for the buses and $14 per hour for drivers.
She also presented requests for blocking dummies, team T-shirts, coach’s shirts, whistles and megaphones, none of which had been mentioned when team officials first approached the city to take over administration of the teams.
Former Recreation Director Ron Kessler had estimated outfitting of the team would cost about $200 per player, which would be partly offset by the $40 registration fee for each player. At the participation goal of 75 players, that would have been somewhere between $17,000 and $20,000.
While the total estimate given by Smith Tuesday was about $18,000, falling within Kessler’s range, the total could have been less without the extra requests.
Kessler had proposed paying for the purchases from the department’s special projects account, but Smith said the Ravens spending would take about half of the available funds in the account, and “if you (board members) could take care of this, I’d like that.”
In other business, the board:
• Heard that 11 applications had been submitted for city administrator, and interviews were scheduled today and Tuesday.
• Considered a donation to All About Helping Kids, a nonprofit overseen by Walthall County District 2 Supervisor Fred Magee.
• Noted payment requests of $118,488.55 from Land Company Development for storm debris cleanup, $17,673.60 for debris cleanup monitoring and $100,801.89 from Griner Drilling Service for the Water Well No. 5 replacement project.
