Here are the specific parts of the contract that I want to see enforced:17 a) Hickory Street will be closed north of the intersection of River Street during all minor league professional baseball games and Extraordinary Events. 17 c) With the approval of the City, Play Ball and it's lessees will be responsible for street closures and parking/traffic control during Extraordinary Events. Each event, including minor league professional baseball games, shall provide the necessary parking and traffic control in the form of barricades, signs, and trained traffic controllers. |
It says Hickory Street will be closed. Period.
It also says that Play Ball and the event will be responsible for keeping
Hickory Street closed by providing staff, barricades, etc.
The Osprey Management has said in the past that they've hired the Police
to man the barricade. To the best of my knowledge, you cannot hire the
Police.
The City has tried in the past to blow us off and say that they'll staff
the barricade with Police Officers, but this is not acceptable. The
contract does not allow for this. The Police have, in the past, been at
the barricade, only to leave for emergencies, leaving Hickory Street open,
violating the terms of this contract.
There's not a lot of room for interpretation here, and yet, our city leaders
choose to bend over backwards to accommodate the Missoula Osprey
Management and make sure that any parts of this contract that they dislike
are unenforced, ignored, or even re-written to suit them better! They
would rather go to the expense of paying Police Officers to be at the
barricade (so long as nothing more pressing comes up), and fight the
neighborhood (me) tooth and nail, than to buck up and spend whatever the
minimum wage is to put an event employee at the barricade.
The contract states that Hickory Street must be closed during events.
The moment that the barricade is compromised, the Osprey Management are in
violation of the contract.
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Ironically, Mr. Ellis (aka Missoula Osprey Management) HAD BEEN staffing the barricade*; but decided to remove his employees because they were being abused. He chooses to shield his employees from the abuse of unruly hooligans, but apparently thinks it's fine for women and children of the neighborhood to face their wrath. *Only at the beginning of games, never throughout. |
Here are a few photos taken August 12, 2006, at about 8:49 pm. Unfortunately, I did not witness the barrier being moved aside. Earlier in the evening, however, I had checked and it was fully in place. These photos, and others below, show that Hickory Street is not being closed during the events as agreed to in the Use Agreement (supposedly an actual, legal contract).
If Matt Ellis (a Californian) truly cared about our community, he would not only have gladly complied with the contract he signed, but he would also bend over backwards to minimize the negative implact his stadium has had on our neighborhood.
He has done neither.
I care about this because the stadium is essentially a large-capacity tavern that people drive to. As a result, as the patrons leave, our area is flooded by careless drivers; some intoxicated by alcohol, some by sports-mania. Either way, when they are allowed to freely drive down our street from the stadium, they tend to speed, drive recklessly, play loud music, squeal their tires, scream, and generally create a great nuisance and safety risk.
When my wife went down and put the barrier back in place one night, accompanied by our three-year-old son, she was verbally assaulted, cursed at - called The B-Word and The C-Word, told to move back to F'ing California (she's from Helena), etc. A similar fate befell another neighborhood lady who felt the need to put the barrier back in place on a separate occasion.
Enough, I say. I want the ballpark management to adhere to the contract they signed with the city.
We are the customer. Our community paid them $2 Million. The product we purchased, presumably, is competent and effective management of this ballpark as an available entertainment venue. The product we purchased is defective. I have asked the management to adhere to their contract with the City, only to be ignored and told by them, and other people in the community, to not worry about it. But I do worry about it because I have to live with it. Every year they hem and haw, say they'll do this and that, but don't really. They just blow us off long enough to get the season under their belts, then vanish for the rest of the year.
I ask that my fellow neighbors, and anyone else who believes that contracts should not be breached, contact these people and let them know that this scenario is simply absurd. Let them know that when we hire them, we expect to be treated with respect, and we expect them to honor the contract they sign with us.
Thanks for your attention.
Email me if you have any questions, thoughts, etc.
My email address is keith@mzla.com