Will Smith pitches for Post 182 in a game last season against Richland Post 6 held at the Ranger’s home field on the campus of Ridge View High School. Long a fixture in the Columbia–area American Legion baseball landscape, Post 182 is missing from this year’s schedule. And the prospects for Northeast Columbia’s return anytime soon appear bleak.

At the heart of the team’s disappearance are Richland District Two’s facilities use fees, which the district implemented in 2003.

“The American Legion had not been charged that fee,” said Richland Two public information officer Dr. Theresa Riley, who did not know why the post hadn’t been charged. “What brought this to the attention of the board, I don’t know, but, once it was, the board asked the legion to pay the use fee.”

That night–use fee for the field at Spring Valley High School is $500 per event (or game); the field’s day use fee is $350.

When notified of the fee in early May, the legion was caught off guard.

“They have a standard form for a contract for any facility use, and we always submitted it to the principal, normally in February or March, and we got it back signed by the principal,” said John Estes, the longtime Post 182 athletics officer. “In the past, it had never been a problem.”

According to Post 182 coach Bret Ross, the post had been paying the district $50 per game for having a district employee on–site and field prep. Estes said the difference between what the legion was paying and the board’s established fee was the result of a waiver the post received each year because it is a non–profit entity, and all of the base- ball team’s players were drawn from Richland Two schools.

According to Riley, part of the mixed message could stem from the fact that before the district implemented a district– wide, set fee schedule, the decision to charge use fees—and their amounts— were left up to individual school administrators.

Suddenly faced with a $5,000 bill, the post asked the board to reconsider. After a series of discussions, the board offered to phase in the fee, charging $300 this year, $400 in 2011, and the full fee in 2012 and beyond.

According to Estes, fielding the team—without paying the use fee—cost the post approximately $7,000 to $8,000 a year. The post generated about $2,000 in revenue from game admission fees and the concession stand each regular season. The rest of the cost for the team and other legion activities was covered through fundraising efforts, the biggest of which was the post’s Shop Road parking operation for University of South Carolina football games, which raised about $9,000 last year.

“We have a pretty tight budget and can’t just pull out two, three, or four thousand dollars without eliminating other programs,” Estes said. “We decided that’s not something we want to do.”

The post decided to cancel the team’s season less than a week before opening day, the timing of which left Ross angry and the players with few options for playing summer ball.

“The district has financial management issues; I understand that,” Ross said. “But not accept- ing the non–profit status of the post was a real slap in the face. And, if this is the policy, they should have notified us back in December or January. Instead, they waited until three weeks before season; shame on the district.”

After the post notified league officials that it would not field a team, officials at Dreher (Richland One) offered Post 182 the use of the field at the Memorial Stadium complex for free, according to Ross.

While appreciative of the offer, Estes said the post declined because players were already making other arrangements, and the number of dates booked for that field would have made scheduling problematic.

As for the future, Riley said that is up to the post.

“They would certainly be welcomed. … It is nothing they have done (that prompted this); they just haven’t been charged the way they should have been.”

Estes, however, indicated the post’s budgets and revenues weren’t likely to change dramatically. Meaning, Post 182 absence could last a while.