The Whitefish Park Board on Tuesday, Feb. 10 was expected to discuss the city’s lease agreement with the Glacier Twins baseball club for use of Memorial Field and a new accounting method for the revenue from a cell tower at the park.

The club’s lease agreement became a point of contention after former longtime Twins coach Julio Delgado raised concerns with City Council about how the historic field is being managed. 

The city acquired the 10-acre Memorial Park in 1935, and a community baseball stadium has existed on the northeast corner of the parcel since 1936. 

In 2002, the city and the Glacier Twins American Legion baseball team signed a long-term, 55-year agreement for the stadium grounds, that requires the Twins to pay $1 per year in rent to the city beginning in January 2003. The initial lease is 25 years, and the Twins have the option to renew the lease for two consecutive, 15-year terms.  

The resolution notes the Twins, a nonprofit organization, had been playing home games at the facility for about 40 years and had made many improvements to the stadium and the surrounding land. 

In 2013, the city gave permission to Verizon Wireless to install a cellular antenna on a light pole at Memorial Park, with lease revenue earmarked for the Glacier Twins. 

A memorandum of understanding from 2022 says the Twins receive 78% of the Verizon funds, a percentage that was based on the leased Memorial Park area. The funds must be used for maintenance of Memorial Field. The remaining 22% are used by the city for park maintenance.   

The agreement was amended in November and includes a lower cell tower rent, so the amount the city disburses to the Twins was reduced. Currently, that amount is about $26,650 annually. 

“We have been discussing with the Twins amending the current MOU to provide for more transparency with respect to use of the Verizon funds, which are the only funds the city contributes,” Whitefish City Attorney Angela Jacobs said. “The city's proposal is that the city holds the funds in the Memorial Park account and the Twins request distributions in writing, accompanied by invoices for items identified in their approved maintenance plan. 

“We are also discussing amending the lease agreement to address concerns brought forth by certain citizens and, again, those discussions have been productive,” Jacobs added. 

Both revised documents were scheduled to be reviewed by the Park Board on Feb. 10. 

Lindsey Andrachick, who has been the general manager of the Glacier Twins since 2019, explained how the club uses the cell tower revenue. 

“It's not tax money” Andrachick said of the Verizon funds. “It's paid to the city by Verizon and then they just manage it for us, and it goes to maintaining [Memorial Field].” 

She said Glacier Twins’ president Kevin Slaybaugh brought the idea of the cell tower to the city years ago. 

“We needed the city to be our umbrella for it,” she said. “That’s why it’s ran through the city.”  

The Twins submit an annual report to the Whitefish Park Board each year. Some of the numbers in those reports grabbed the attention of community members who have raised concerns. 

A vocal opponent of the way the Twins run Memorial Field is Delgado, who coached the team for 20 years. At a recent City Council meeting, he questioned the report’s $13,000 spent to plow the field. 

“When was the last time you saw anybody plowing Memorial Field?” he asked at the Jan. 20 meeting. 

One part of the misunderstanding, Andrachick said, was that the Twins, an all-volunteer organization, failed to include important wording in the annual report. 

“We worded it wrong. We didn’t put ‘in kind’ in anything,” she said. “We didn’t realize that was something we needed to do. Since then, we’ve corrected that. The city absolutely knew that all that work was in kind because we’ve been doing those reports for many years.” 

Andrachick said most of the work at the field is done by volunteers. 

“We do all the work ourselves so that the money raised can go back to the kids,” she said. “We do want to be transparent because we don’t want to be called on something like that when it’s not true.” 

Total estimated expenses listed on the Twins’ 2023-24 progress and annual report were $138,485, which included an estimated $65,000 for grass turf and infield mowing and maintenance. 

Delgado questioned that amount when speaking with the Pilot.  

“Find me anybody who’s going to mow that field for $65,000,” he said. “You realize they only play a month and a half. You realize that’s $1,500 of mowing every day for the summer. Every day.” 

Delgado said the city isn’t holding the club accountable for the expenses. 

Andrachick said numbers in the annual report are being taken out of context. She also said players can work off most or all of the $1,200 player fee by hanging garlands in the winter and doing labor on projects at the field. They can also sell season passes and receive scholarship donations. 

THIS FALL MARKS the last season that the high school football team will play at Memorial Field. The team expects to move to its new facility in the fall of 2027. 

"The football agreement is $6,000 per year to cover the cost of the season's field usage,” Twins board member Johanna Muller wrote in an email to the Pilot. “There is an additional $1,400 that is matched by GT, and the $2,800 yearly goes into a reserve account that is to be used to cover future major capital repairs and maintenance.” 

That $7,400 rent for football season allows the varsity and junior varsity Bulldogs to play home games on the field and the varsity team to have a walk-through practice on Thursday nights. 

Andrachick said the Twins have a good relationship with the Whitefish School District and the football program.  

Whitefish High School baseball is another story. 

“When it comes to baseball, we really, really try to work with them,” she said. “But since baseball’s not funded through the school, it’s privately funded, it becomes kind of a weird like who’s really in charge of making sure an arrangement is fulfilled. 

“The last two years when we have approached the Whitefish district about using the field for baseball, they said they weren't interested,” Andrachick said. 

High school baseball did use the field for its first season in 2023, when baseball became an official high school sport in Montana, but not since. 

“We can't run a fall ball program and their rent actually covers utilities, is what it boils down to,” Andrachick said of high school baseball. “Those lights down there are so expensive. Whitefish water is so expensive.”  

Whitefish High School Athletics and Activities Director Aric Harris said the school would love to play baseball at Memorial Field. 

“We definitely would love to play baseball there. It’s just that we have not been able to come up with an agreement that meets our needs,” Harris said. “Smith Fields has always been an option for us and they’re meeting our needs, so we’re happy to play on the Smith Fields. 

“The big thing for us is, we’d like to practice and play there,” he added. “I understand their concern about the field and the condition and the use of it and going into their season, but that’s the hang up.” 

At the Jan. 20 City Council meeting, Councilor Steve Qunell said the issues at Memorial Field have been bothering him for a long time. 

“It makes no sense to me that our Whitefish High School baseball team is not playing 30 steps from the back door of the high school,” Qunell said. “Whatever we have to do to get in and facilitate that, I think we owe that to the kids that are playing for Whitefish High School.” 

One reason Andrachick cited was that the Glacier Twins are made up of players from Columbia Falls and Whitefish. 

"Columbia Falls and Whitefish kids are both the ones that raise the money,” she said. “If we let Whitefish High School baseball on our field, and let them use all of our equipment and all of our nets and all of our stuff, that stuff was fundraised by both C-Falls and Whitefish kids, so it doesn't belong to just the Whitefish kids.” 

MEMORIAL FIELD is city property, but the field is not open to the public. There are locks on all the gates. 

Andrachick said the organization does let teams play there as long as it doesn't interfere with Twins’ time -- something she said held true at Smith Fields, too. She said Babe Ruth Baseball is playing at Memorial Field because Smith Fields was occupied. 

"Our doors are pretty much open. We have so many alumni ... They come use the field anytime they want. Once you’re a Glacier Twins, you’re Glacier Twins for life. They know the codes.  

“We have a really open-door policy when it comes to that kind of stuff, and I don't know the last time we've said no when someone's asked to use our field.” 

Delgado pushed back on that assertion. 

“When I was involved ... there was never an issue of anybody else using the field. It was never locked up,” Delgado said. “The Twins took over and it’s locked up tighter than Fort Knox. There are security cameras everywhere. Nobody can use the field.” 

He added that the adult league should be allowed to play there free of charge because it is a city park. 

“I have a problem with them making that field their own little playground and not allowing anyone else to use it,” he said. “It's ridiculous. It's a city property.” 

Whether open-door or not, Delgado would like the nonprofit Glacier Twins to open its accounting books, though the Twins’ 990 tax form is posted with the IRS. 

“The people of Whitefish should be able to see how they’re spending their money, but they don’t want to show it to us,” Delgado asserted. “They claim we’re trying to ruin their program. That's a crock. We're trying to save their program.” 

    Memorial Park covers about three quarters of Memorial Park, located at 135 E. Second St. (Julie Engler/Whitefish Pilot)
  

    One of the gates at Memorial Field on Feb. 7. (Julie Engler/Whitefish Pilot)