With youth sports enrollment low and electric bills running higher and higher, the Ashville Youth Association spoke with the city’s council in hopes of financial assistance to get through the season.

The Ashville Youth Association sports complex is a volunteer-run facility which operates from the proceeds of registration fees for sports, as well as gate fees for football games in the fall.

However, the field is having trouble staying in operation with high costs eating into their budget. The Ashville City Council recently agreed to pay $5,000 of the group’s electric bills, but the money is nearly gone before the start of softball and baseball season — the most costly sports to light.

“We had to raise registration fees [for softball and baseball] from $95 to $125 this year,” said Keith Cunningham, who helps operate the field.

A large part of the problem for the group has been a new requirement from the National Softball Association, whose league Ashville plays in, to have certified umpires, which cost $30 per game for each of the two umpires required on the field,. The costs add up quickly for the field’s 40-plus games.

Cunningham noted that baseball and softball are often times financially losing seasons for the sports, but are often carried by the football and cheerleading programs, which charge gate fees for games. However, with a lower turnout in all sports, and a $3,000 one-time charge to inspect football helmets for safety last year, the softball losses are even more painful for the organization.

“I had to beg two parks to schedule with us this year, because we can’t afford the umpires,” Cunningham said. “The umpires are a NSA softball requirement, and we can opt out, but we’d have no one to play. All the teams around here are NSA, we’d have to go to Birmingham for games.”

Mayor Robert McKay noted a significant lack of participation from when he was more involved with the softball program with his own children, and noted that “everything has gone up except enrollment.”

While he said the city is in a similar financial circumstance as the park, he asked councilman Mike Sheffield to meet with the staff to look over their finances and see where it might be possible for the city to help keep the programs afloat through this season.

“We want y’all to be successful, but the economy is hitting you guys just like it is everyone else,” McKay said.

In other actions:

— The Council unanimously decided to rename Industrial Drive to the Dr. Gartrail Industrial Drive in appreciation of the 5 ½ acres of land given for the road’s construction.

— McKay noted that Police Chief Mike Barry recently secured a $38,000 grant to allow the fire department to fill their own oxygen tanks on location, instead of taking them to Rainbow City.

— The next council meeting was moved from March 22 to 6 p.m. March 24.