Claremore – Powers Park, the Volunteer Partnership, and the $2.45 Million Master-Plan Test

Claremore: Powers Park, the Volunteer Partnership, and the $2.45 Million Master-Plan Test

Research publication: Saturday, November 7, 2026
City and county: Claremore, Rogers County, Oklahoma
Primary site: Powers Park, 2011 North Sioux Avenue
Separate comparison site: Pecan Park, 1080 West Blue Starr Drive
Public-record period: Historical parks planning through November 7, 2026; municipal planning emphasis 2007–2026
Hidden Valley exact-label periods: Powers Park baseball records 2001–2019 (17 represented seasons); Pecan Park softball records 2011–2012.
Publication status: Published research with formal City records request ORR-26-290 submitted November 7, 2026. No field-specific executed lease, audited operator financial statement or City records-production response authenticated in this installment.

The central test: Claremore publishes a practical division of responsibilities: volunteer organizations organize youth games, while the City supplements water and electricity for athletic fields. The 2007-era citywide master plan proposed substantial Powers Park and Pecan/Walnut upgrades. What do signed agreements, municipal ledgers and completed-project records establish about the cost, access and outcomes of that partnership? [S1] [S2] [S3]

Evidence boundary: Hidden Valley dollars are historical model calculations, not City collections. The master-plan budgets are proposed 2007-dollar investments, not proof the City spent those amounts. A publicly described volunteer partnership is not a signed operating contract; missing records are unresolved questions, not proof of misconduct.

Executive Findings — what is established and what remains open

1. Powers Park is a documented Claremore municipal sports facility. The City lists a 35-acre park established in 1973 and renovated in 2008, with twelve baseball fields, eight fully lighted and two with infield lighting. Its official address is 2011 N. Sioux Avenue, which corresponds to the dataset's “Claremore Youth Baseball Sports Complex” label and matching street address. The City identifies the park as home to the Rogers County Baseball Association. The label-to-place match is well corroborated, but historic event-by-event primary-venue confirmation remains pending. [S1] [R1]

2. The partnership is described openly, but contractual details are not established here. Claremore states that independent youth sports organizers and volunteers administer programs, and that the City supplements water and electricity to maintain athletic facilities. That public description establishes the general operating model; it does not quantify utility subsidies, identify every legal licensee or establish tournament rights, fee remittances, exclusivity, concession ownership or required annual reports. [S2]

3. The historical archive documents significant activity. The exact Powers Park baseball label contains 432 division records, 92 distinct event URLs, 2,660 cumulative team entries, $244,630 calculated entry fees, 5,730 modeled minimum games and 10,285 modeled officiating slots. A distinct Pecan Park softball label contains 16 division records, nine events, 100 team entries and $23,361 calculated fees. The combined two-venue Claremore source subtotal is $267,991, but the venues remain separate in all audit files. [R1]

4. The City's own planning record provides a compelling but historical performance benchmark. Its parks master plan projected $2,449,975 for two Powers Park phases and $1,667,500 for a Pecan/Walnut softball concept, in 2007 dollars. The plan documented concerns about practice access and recommended improvements to fields, drainage, lighting, gathering areas and common infrastructure. It was a proposed capital roadmap—not an invoice ledger or proof of completed construction. [S3]

5. Primary governance records remain the next step. Official Council archives, City Clerk open-records instructions and municipal financial report directories are public, but an executed Powers Park user agreement, facility-level collections, actual 2008 renovation costs, operator reports and governing-body roll-call records were not authenticated for this review. A comprehensive Oklahoma Open Records Act request was submitted November 7, 2026, as ORR-26-290; substantive City records production remains pending. [S4] [S5] [S6] [S10]

Facility Identity, Geography, Jurisdiction and Scope

The most important place-identification issue is straightforward: the City lists Powers Park at 2011 N. Sioux Avenue, and all 432 baseball source rows identify “Claremore Youth Baseball Sports Complex” at 2011 North Sioux, Claremore. The dataset uses two punctuation variants of the same address. This is strong corroboration of the park identity, not independent verification that every event's primary host was Powers Park. [S1] [R1]

The City describes a 35-acre complex established in 1973, renovated in 2008, and containing twelve baseball fields. The park includes concessions, bleachers, restrooms, playground facilities and accessible amenities. The official City page associates it with Rogers County Baseball Association. The youth activities page indicates the organization serves approximately ages five through fourteen and describes spring and fall league structures. [S1] [S2]

Pecan Park is a different facility, not another name for Powers Park. The City lists Pecan Park at 1080 W. Blue Starr Drive, established in 1975, with five lighted softball fields and the Claremore Girls Softball Association. The sixteen softball source rows match that street address. The two sites may be aggregated only when explicitly labeled a municipal two-site subtotal, not when making individual facility claims. [S1] [R1]

Governmental authority: The park is identified as a City of Claremore asset. Being located within Rogers County does not establish a Rogers County Board of Commissioners lease or transfer City Council responsibility to county government. The City's Council makes collective legislative and appropriation decisions; City Parks and administrative personnel implement policies; independently organized youth sports associations administer their own programs to the extent supported by operative agreements. The legal allocation of liability, funds and facility control remains to be documented. [S2] [S4]

Period selection: The earliest Powers Park source rows are in 2001 and the latest in 2019. Seventeen seasons appear in that 19-year span; 2005 and 2010 are not represented. Pecan appears only in 2011–2012. Lack of exact-label rows after these periods cannot establish facility closure, cessation of tournaments, or the absence of activity outside USSSA.

Public Decisions and Oversight Chronology

What the City Says About Volunteers, Utilities and Local Leagues

The City's youth-activities description is unusually useful. It does not simply present ballfields as unrestricted public recreation; it describes a cooperative model in which volunteer organizations deliver youth sports programs and City government supplements water and electricity. Its guidance also states that program administration rests with independent league administrators and coaches and encourages volunteers and respectful participation. [S2]

This establishes at least three discrete responsibilities to test: (a) municipal infrastructure inputs such as utilities and facility upkeep, (b) association programming duties such as registration, team assignment, scheduling and volunteers, and (c) public policy oversight governing eligibility, contracting, equitable access, insurance and accountability. It does not establish how much a league collected from tournaments or what percentage of utility costs was paid by the City.

The City describes the Rogers County Baseball Association as the Powers Park youth baseball organization and provides season-registration timing. It also identifies separate Pecan Park softball programming. This dual-site structure permits a useful affordability comparison, but current baseball and softball registration prices, gate charges, scholarships and contractor payments have not been independently verified for this article. [S1] [S2]

A responsible annual evaluation would match City utility meter or account records to signed agreements; compare City field-maintenance costs with actual association duties; and request yearly reports, where contracts require them, detailing field use, discounts, scholarships and reinvestment. If no such reports are required, that is a policy-design question, not automatic evidence of a breached obligation.

2007-Era Parks Master Plan — the $2.45 Million Planning Benchmark

A City-hosted Parks & Recreation Open Space Master Plan—whose tables use 2007-dollar estimates and 2007–2008 / 2013–2015 proposed phases—provided a detailed conceptual vision for youth baseball. The plan's Powers Park appendix described how renovating the older-youth four-field complex could support later work serving additional age groups and larger tournaments. [S3]

The plan listed Phase I $1,000,050, Phase II $1,449,925, for a Powers Park total of $2,449,975. The same master-plan summary listed $1,667,500 for a Pecan/Walnut softball concept. Those were historical forecast budgets, not approved modern appropriations or actual project spending. The document also described a need for more dependable practice areas and proposed drainage, resurfacing, lights, common areas and other amenities. [S3]

What is known and what is not: The City now describes Powers Park as renovated in 2008. That site-history entry does not demonstrate that all items in the entire $2.45 million two-phase plan were built, nor that any projected line-item was spent at the estimated amount. The City may have modified, delayed, scaled or funded separate work. Procurement records, completion reports and finance entries must settle that question. [S1] [S3]

Why this matters now: The plan is a rare public baseline identifying practice-field access as an important player-development issue, rather than treating tournament volume alone as success. Whether the City actually improved practice availability should be tested through field maps, reservation policy, field-condition logs and league participation—not retroactively assumed from the 2008 renovation label.

Hidden Valley/USSSA Audit — Powers Park Baseball, Exact Facility Label

The following table comes from a fresh division-row extraction of the uploaded September 20, 2026 AIUSSSA/HVIOG master CSV. It uses the exact facility string “Claremore Youth Baseball Sports Complex,” municipality “Claremore,” and the unique EventUrl field for event counting. The source covers seventeen represented seasons between 2001 and 2019. All values are reproducible in the attached CSV audit. [R1]

Measures: “Teams” means summed entries, not unique clubs or resident children. “Divisions” means division-level source rows, not distinct age categories. “Minimum games” and “officials” are model outputs; official assignments are staffing slots, not 10,285 separate umpires. TotalTeamEntryFee is a modeled/derived historical total, not audited paid receipts or municipal revenue. [R1]

Particularly important limitation: 154 of the 432 baseball division rows display $0 in the calculated-entry-fee field. A zero may reflect incomplete historical pricing, different fee arrangements, or a model convention; it does not establish that the event was free or no money changed hands. The $244,630 must therefore not be portrayed as the total real-world economic throughput of the park.

¹ Model outputs, not verified played games or paid officials. The 92 event-URL figure counts distinct URLs within the Powers subset; per-year sums reconcile to the full dataset. [R1]

Pecan Park Softball — Separate Venue, Separate Ledger

The second Claremore facility label is “Claremore Girls Softball.” City and dataset addresses align at 1080 West Blue Starr Drive, consistent with Pecan Park. The girls' softball organization is separately identified by the City. These records must never be presented as baseball events at Powers Park. [S1] [R1]

The exact Pecan label contains 16 division rows, 9 unique event URLs, 100 cumulative team entries, $23,361 modeled entry fees, 220 modeled games and 380 modeled official assignments. The record is limited to 2011 and 2012. The absence of more years in this exact label does not establish that the City stopped hosting softball at Pecan Park.

A clearly labeled two-facility Claremore subtotal is 448 division rows, 101 distinct event URLs, 2,760 team entries, $267,991 modeled entry fees, 5,950 modeled games and 10,665 modeled officiating assignments. It must not be used as a Powers Park-only estimate. [R1]

Historical Director and Association Attribution — Labels, Not Beneficiaries

Six director names appear on the exact Powers baseball rows and two director names appear on the separate Pecan softball rows. Each is a source attribution attached to historical event listings; none is independently verified here as the recipient of an entry-fee payment, City concessionaire, contract signatory, or individual who personally kept tournament proceeds. [R1]

Powers Park — baseball labels

Pecan Park — softball labels

² Event URL counts in this table are per director-label subset and do not prove who physically controlled tournament operations. Dates, primary hosts, signatories and actual money flows require source records and agreements.

League Versus Tournament Listings — Avoiding Inappropriate Comparisons

The master dataset provides a LeaguePhase field. Rather than infer league play from an event title, this audit distinguishes non-empty LeaguePhase values from rows without that label. This is only a source classification, not an independent City permit classification. [R1]

At Powers, 29 league-tagged rows represent 138 team entries and $3,360 calculated fees, while 403 other rows represent 2,522 entries and $241,270 calculated fees. Even “other” need not mean an independently permitted, single-venue tournament. Only signed booking logs and event records can verify that administrative classification.

Financial Reconciliation — Five Different Accounts Must Stay Separate

There are at least five potentially overlapping but conceptually distinct accounting streams in this municipal case. First, the City may pay for water and electricity under its publicly described partnership. Second, municipal Parks and Recreation may pay for field upkeep or improvements. Third, youth organizations may charge registration or team participation fees. Fourth, event organizers may collect tournament entry, admissions, concessions and sponsorship revenue. Fifth, City capital accounts may fund major renovations. No reliable analysis should assume one payer or collector for all five. [S2] [R1]

The Hidden Valley file additionally models $411,400 umpire-fee expenditure, $1,144,200 gate revenue and $572,100 concessions for Powers Park labeled source rows. Pecan's separate estimates are $15,200, $45,600 and $22,800, respectively. These are research formulas, not verified ticket sales, signed vendor settlements, tax remittances or wage records. They are not added to audited City income and should not be cited as an organization's actual profit. [R1]

The City publishes a budget/report directory and previously described its FY2024–25 budget presentation, but those public pages do not provide a reconciliation of Powers-specific utility bills, field rental receipts, tournament settlement statements, operator accounts, or actual capital spending for this study. That inability to verify a ledger is an evidentiary gap, not proof that legally required reports were withheld. [S6] [S7]

A defensible reconciliation would link every known City expenditure to a fiscal-year ledger account, authorized payee, approved invoice or payroll allocation and asset; then identify contractual reporting or remittance obligations, and finally compare historical event dates with City booking logs. The model estimates should remain in a separate worksheet throughout.

Governance and Public Decisions — Who Can Be Held to What Record?

Collective City Council action: The Council establishes public policy, adopts ordinances and appropriations, and can approve significant agreements through its recorded proceedings. A Council archive is publicly accessible, but this episode has not authenticated a specific named councilmember's vote on Powers Park operations or the 2008 renovation. No individual officeholder is assigned a vote not established in minutes. [S4] [S10]

Administrative responsibilities: The City Clerk manages minutes, ordinances and records access; municipal staff administers Parks facilities and accounts. The City's public description of utility supplementation is a departmental policy statement, not a quantified invoice finding. The May 2024 finance budget presentation was an administrative presentation to the Council, not proof that a specific Powers Park project was adopted or paid. [S2] [S5] [S7]

Independent association activity: Rogers County Baseball Association and Claremore Girls Softball Association are described as program partners. The City says volunteers organize programs. Without signed contracts, it is not appropriate to claim these groups possess legal exclusivity, receive all gate income, owe a specific financial report, or violated any term. [S1] [S2]

Structural conditions: Practice-field scarcity, volunteer availability, travel burden, weather, lighting and turf life cycles are program constraints. The master plan's historic discussion of practice access is an observation and policy recommendation—not an adjudication that any official breached a duty. [S3]

Rogers County distinction: Rogers County is the geographical county and shares a name with the Rogers County Baseball Association. Neither fact alone makes the county government the facility owner, payer or contracting authority. Attribution follows the actual City property listing and any future executed instruments.

How Public Decisions Shape a Healthy Community-Based Program

Affordability. Municipal support for utilities and public fields can help reduce costs compared with fully private facilities, but savings to families cannot be assumed. Obtain dated registration schedules, equipment costs, tournament gate policies, multi-child discounts and scholarships, and compare them with the City’s utility and maintenance contributions. Families need to know which costs are subsidized and which are passed through. [S2]

Local league stability. The City's published spring and fall league structure suggests recurring programs requiring reliable practice and game slots. Written booking priorities should protect basic community leagues while allowing regional competition, with dispute procedures and predictable seasonal renewals. The master plan’s historic practice-area concerns are a reason to measure actual access. [S2] [S3]

Volunteers. Independent coaches and league administrators support local operations, and the City explicitly encourages volunteering. Clear written terms about field preparation, insurance, screening, umpiring, lighting and cancellations can reduce volunteer burnout. Evidence of volunteer time is not proof that volunteer work has zero community cost. [S2]

Equitable access. City-owned Parks should have documented criteria for residents and nonresidents, baseball and softball, independent clubs, players with disabilities and families unable to afford tournament travel. The City's pages identify accessible amenities but do not supply field-by-field booking and accommodation outcomes. [S1]

Transparency. Executed agreements, rate schedules, audited City transactions and annual field-allocation reports can make the partnership understandable without disclosing minors’ private information. The City Clerk and Council archives provide a way to document the existing records; annual operator reports should be evaluated only if law or agreements require them. [S4] [S5] [S6]

Reinvestment. Utilities, dirt, turf, lights, fencing, buildings and ADA features require continued maintenance. The 2007-era plan’s two-phase budget is not a reserve, and modeled USSSA revenue is not an appropriation. A sustainable policy should document annual City and association investments and actual balances set aside for replacement. [S3]

Competition. Regional tournaments may bring visitors and stronger competition, while practices and recreational schedules remain equally important to neighborhood youth. Measured tournament field-days, league field-hours and waitlists—not modeled fees alone—would determine whether the balance works for children. [R1]

Player development. The City's master plan recognized the importance of dependable practice space. Track beginner participation, instructional practices, coach training, age-appropriate game guarantees and retention in both baseball and softball. One tournament entry is not one distinct child; tournament volume alone cannot demonstrate skill development. [S3] [R1]

Sustainability. Publish a five-year maintenance plan with electricity, water, staffing, drainage, field resurfacing, insurance, emergencies and capital replacement responsibilities. Annual City budgets, signed operating terms and a user-group performance review would give residents a measurable public-benefit baseline rather than a narrative based on aggregate tournament projections. [S2] [S6]

Evidence Classification — Findings, Calculations, Allegations, Questions

Open Records Act Tracking — Submitted November 7, 2026

Verified submission: On Saturday, November 7, 2026, the City of Claremore OpenGov portal accepted a comprehensive Oklahoma Open Records Act request covering January 1, 2001–November 7, 2026. The automated City acknowledgment, dated 8:33 a.m., states that the application was submitted successfully and assigns ORR-26-290. The portal tracking screen displayed the City Clerk — In Progress workflow status. These documents establish receipt and processing status, not that records have been produced or a search completed. [R2] [R3]

Official request tracking: View City of Claremore request ORR-26-290 in OpenGov (portal login may be required). City Clerk records information.

Records requested: Executed leases and user-group agreements; Rogers County Baseball Association and Claremore Girls Softball Association arrangements; tournament bookings, permits and settlements; municipal receipts and expenditures; utility subsidies; concessions and gate policies; maintenance; 2008 Powers Park renovation and other capital-project records; Council approvals; City-held operator reports; field access; procurement, grants and records-retention information. The request seeks existing City-held records and explicitly excludes confidential youth participant information. It asks for phased electronic production and an itemized estimate before charges. [R4]

Documentary record: The source register identifies the City's submission confirmation, the portal's submission-review record and the comprehensive five-page request. Once copies are uploaded to Baseball Heaven, their public PDF URLs can be added here without altering the original evidence.

Next update: As the City issues clarification requests, fee estimates, partial productions, determinations or final records, each event will be logged by date, category, City reference and documentary source. A submitted request is not a finding of wrongdoing or evidence that a requested record exists.

Records Still Needed — Prioritized Audit Register

1. Signed operating instruments: all current and historical Parks leases, licenses, user agreements, amendments, renewals and terminations with Rogers County Baseball Association, Claremore Girls Softball Association and other facilities users, with exhibits and insurance terms.
2. 2008 Powers renovation: design, bids, awards, scope changes, substantial completion, warranties and final pay applications; crosswalk to the historic master-plan phases.
3. Council and board authorizations: agenda packets, staff reports, minute books, resolutions and any recorded individual roll-call votes directly approving a specific park agreement or capital allocation.
4. Actual City spending and receipts: Powers and Pecan utility expenditures, maintenance, mowing, lighting, concessions, parking, field rentals and event permits by fiscal year; distinguish tax financing from association revenue.
5. City-created and City-held operator reports: compliance inspections, performance reviews, annual statements and financial reports in the City's possession. If the City does not require or possess a category, document that response without assuming wrongdoing.
6. Field booking and accessibility: seasons, allocated local league hours, tournament weekends, independent-team practice, resident priorities, ADA accommodations and fee/appeal schedules.
7. Reinvestment and long-term maintenance: actual capital improvement funds, reserves, grant restrictions, bond receipts and vendor payments, including the status of all proposed $2.45 million and Pecan/Walnut plan features.
8. Historical event identity: City booking calendars for the 92 baseball and nine softball dataset event URLs, field maps and primary-facility records; retain unresolved classifications.
9. Youth-benefit outcomes: de-identified participation counts, recreational fees, scholarships, volunteers, coach-training records, retention and field-condition complaints.
10. Records-retention and availability notices: where requested older material is no longer held, obtain the applicable retention schedule and the City's date-specific statement of the search undertaken.

Right of Response

The City of Claremore City Clerk, Parks and Recreation Department, Finance Department, Rogers County Baseball Association, Claremore Girls Softball Association, and historical event directors associated with the listed events should have an opportunity to provide contracts, dates, actual finance and field-use records, and documented corrections.

A right-of-response inquiry should distinguish factual questions from allegations: What agreements currently govern Powers and Pecan Park? Does the City pay utility bills, in what amounts, and under which accounts? Are tournament revenue and concessions reported to the City under contract? Which 2007 master-plan improvements were funded or completed? What are current local-league field priorities? No misconduct is alleged. The City was formally contacted through OpenGov request ORR-26-290 on November 7, 2026; no substantive response is documented yet. Replies, if subsequently received, should be added to the City tracker by actual date and evidence type.

Methodology and Source-Quality Audit

Dataset and reproducibility: Import the supplied AIUSSSA - HVIOG 9-20-2026(8).csv (20,305 source rows), filter Municipality equal to “Claremore” after case/space normalization, and retain the two exact Facility strings without alias merging. That produces 448 records, separated into 432 Powers baseball and 16 Pecan softball. Event identifiers are counted by distinct EventUrl, not by raw division rows or unverified host-location labels. [R1]

Geographical confidence: Two exact location-address matches to the City's parks listing support the Powers/Pecan mapping, while event primary-host verification remains a separate task. The supplied dataset has no additional facility labels containing “Claremore” outside those two local facility subsets.

Currency handling: Dollar-formatted strings are stripped of $ and commas before numerical summation. Zero fee model rows are retained but are not interpreted as proof of free entry. The audit includes yearly, director and LeaguePhase classification CSVs, original rows for each venue, and a machine-readable totals file.

Evidence grades: City park descriptions and administrative partnership statements are primary municipal publication; the 2007-dollar master plan is a historical planning document; the uploaded HVIOG file is a research model; individual operating contracts, actual City park ledgers and specific Council votes are not yet authenticated. All professional judgments are provisional.

Publication chronology: The article covers the state of research as of November 7, 2026. A plan PDF uploaded to the City website in 2022 can contain a 2007-era proposal; upload date must not be mistaken for the date the capital figures were prepared. [S3]

Source Register and Documentary Links

Editorial principle: An association name is not a contractor signature; a planning budget is not an invoice; a team entry is not an individual child; a derived event fee is not a municipal receipt; and a missing document is an oversight question—not established misconduct.

Following the money. Following the facilities. Following the decisions. Following the public record.