Crowded fields drive complex plea

TIFFIN — A leader of the city's largest youth sports organization urged Tiffin City Council on Monday to find a path toward a long-discussed athletic complex, telling members the city's fields are "maxed out" even as a feasibility study points to millions of dollars in potential economic activity. Curt Mellott, president of the Tiffin Big Sticks youth baseball and softball league and of the Tiffin Honor Games, used the meeting's oral communications period to revisit a feasibility study the council funded last year. He said the league has grown from 58 boys in 2015 to 285 children across 22 teams this year, closer to 450 when Calvert's K-through-8 players are included, without facilities to match. "Our resources just don't match our interest," Mellott told council. "We've been doing more with less literally daily. It's really taking a toll on our facilities and the ability to operate effectively." Mellott said the league would play roughly 180 games this year at Hedges Boyer Park, Oakley Park and the Columbian softball field while scrambling weekly for 60 to 75 practice slots. He cited study projections of about $5 million in annual regional economic impact, roughly 100 jobs, $150,000 in profit by the fourth year and 35,000 to 40,000 visitors a year. "Are we going to help our kids? Are we gonna help our community financially?" he said. "I think we need to start looking for some solutions, because if we don't, other people will." Mellott also pointed to the Tiffin Honor Games, the veterans fundraiser he runs, which grew from 10 teams in 2025 to 39 this year and raised an estimated $30,000 for the honor bus. He said keeping the event spread across multiple sites drew the one complaint he heard: "I wish you guys could do this at one location." Officials pointed to two hurdles: location and money. Hedges Boyer Park sits in a floodplain, underscored by spring flooding, and that a firm had offered to finance a facility only if the city secured a site and covered early operating losses. "That kind of puts the city on the hook for at least the first few years until it becomes profitable," Wilkinson said. "And we're just not in a position to do that at this point in time."