GONZALES - America's favorite pastime was back on the City of Gonzales agenda on Monday after an agreement failed to pass at the last two council meetings.

The council, on Monday night, voted 3-2 to split the use of the city's eight baseball and softball fields between the Ascension Parish Government and travel teams. The eight fields include those at Tee Joe Park, Municipal Park and Bergeron-Gaudin Park (Civic Center Field).

Ascension Parish will have access to fields at Tee Jones Park, while travel teams will use the ones at Municipal Park and the Gonzales Civic Center Park.

Back in October, the parish renewed its agreement with AP Baseball, a private company operating recreational baseball for various ages. The parish agreed to pay AP Baseball $80,000 to run its recreational program. Ascension Parish Parks and Recreation Director Brandon Smith said the agreement between the parish and city would allow the parish to expand its recreational baseball program. He said while AP Baseball would have priority when it came to scheduling field times, the parish would look at adding other recreational sports programming, like kickball, to those fields as well.

Some travel teams in the area have expressed concern about scheduling field times if the proposed agreement is passed. Randell Williams coaches the Southern Chargers, one of the town's travel teams. He said the Chargers have practiced at Tee Joe Park for the past four years.

“We haven’t had any trouble renting the fields, using the fields. The only issue now is that recreation… they’re trying to take over all of the fields,” Williams said. “If AP Baseball takes over every field in the city, then all the travel teams… we have nowhere to practice, we have nowhere to go.”

The desire to make sure both recreational and travel teams are able to use the fields is one of the reasons why some council members voted against the agreement at the Jan. 29 meeting. Council member Tyler Turner told WBRZ he wanted both groups to be able to use the fields.

Council member Terri Lynn Lambert also voted against the agreement at the last meeting. She cited concerns regarding the parish running city resources.

"This IGA is before the council for a third time, and my position has not changed. I will not support giving up control of Gonzales' recreational fields to Ascension Parish. My responsibility as a Councilwoman is to protect taxpayer dollars and Gonzales' recreational resources. I stand firm in protecting our City's interests," Lambert wrote in a statement.

Gonzales Chief of Staff Wade Petite said last year, AP Baseball/Impact Sports ran the city's recreational program, and the city paid the company $40,000 to cover expenses like umpires and other operations. By entering the Intergovernmental Agreement with the parish, Petite said the city would no longer have to cover the $40,000 stipend because of AP Baseball's agreement with the parish.

“The city maintains the fields, we prepare them for play, prepare the concession stands. Things of that nature," Petite said. “AP Baseball and Ascension Parish will do all the scheduling. Last year, just in the city, AP Baseball did all the scheduling. The City of Gonzales has done none of the scheduling, not last year and not this year.”

The agreement voted on Monday also includes an additional line with a chart, describing when AP Baseball would need exclusive use of Gonzales' fields. Petite said groups like travel teams would be allowed to reach out to the city to reserve the fields when they are not in use by AP Baseball.

In a statement released last week, Mayor Tim Riley wrote that if AP Baseball is not able to use the city's fields, "the kids who reside inside the city limits will be the first to go."

WBRZ reached out to AP Baseball's CEO and Founder, Jason Adams, for comment. He declined to speak before the meeting.