An area civic organization wants the Washington City Council to authorize waiving fees associated with renting city athletic fields for a soccer tournament.

Patty Peebles, president of the Optimist Club of Washington, is scheduled to appear before the council during its meeting Monday to request the fees be waived. The tournament is set for Nov. 14.

“Once we pay referees, equipment, insurance and trophies there is very little left, if any, profit from the tournament. We would probably lose money if we have to pay the city to rent the soccer fields as is the current city policy. There is a potential for about 20 teams to be participating in the Tournament in four divisions. Signups are in progress and we won’t know the total teams until later this month,” Peebles wrote in a letter to the City Council.

The club may charge $90 for each team to register and admission fees of $3 for each adult and $2 for each child above age 5. Children who are 5 years old or younger do not have to pay an admission fee, according to the letter.

“These are minimum fee amounts unlike travel leagues that charge $400/$500 per team to participate and have $7-8 gate admittance fees,” the letter reads.

In June, the council (with Mayor Mac Hodges casting the deciding vote to break a 202 tie) waived the fees for a baseball and softball tournaments at the city-owned McConnell Sports Complex. Those fees were estimated at $5,000.

Councilman Doug Mercer, who voted against waiving those fees, asked Councilman Larry Beeman, who made the motion to waive those fees, “Councilman Beeman, who’s going to pay the expenses for the work that has to be done during those tournaments?”

“They will have to come out of the respective departments’ budgets,” Beeman replied then.

At that June meeting, Mercer said waiving the fees would set a bad precedent. He fears others will ask to have fees waived for similar events. Mercer also noted the tournament organizers charge fees for people to attend their events.

At that June meeting, Kristi Roberson, the city’s parks and recreation supervisor, told the council the city, in recent years, has not charged fees for any district, regional or state tournaments organized by leagues based in Washington. A new fee scheduled to take effect July 1 called for charging fees for such tournaments, she noted.

Beeman contended those fees should be not charged when the tournaments are an extension of the leagues’ current regular seasons, when such fees are not charged.

The council meets at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the Council Chambers in the Municipal Building, 102 E. Second St. To view the council’s agenda for a specific meeting, visit the city’s web­site at www.washingtonnc.gov, click “Government” then “City Council” heading, then click “Meeting Agendas” on the menu to the right. Then click on the date for the appropriate agenda.