Pioneers make new plan as city approves new lease for Oregon Trail Park Stadium

The Gering City Council approved a proposal by the Western Nebraska Pioneers and entered into a new lease agreement with owners Chuck and Mayra Heeman for Oregon Trail Park Stadium during the Monday, April 25, meeting.

The proposal and lease garnered a vote of 6-1, with councilmember Michael Gillen being the lone dissenter and councilmember Ben Backus being absent.

Both decisions were made with no discussion.

According to meeting documents, the original lease with the Pioneers and the Expedition League, which was signed in 2017 and was to continue through the 2022 season, was in default, which was made known to both parties on April 4, 2022.

City administrator Pat Heath told the Gering Courier that the lease was in default for three reasons. Because of the Expedition League’s and the Pioneers’ differences, the city knew there wouldn’t be a 32-home game season as the agreement states; rent was late for “a few several years”; and there was “some insurance that wasn’t provided to the city that was required.”

Pioneers owner Chuck Heeman told the Gering Courier that the late rent was a result of starting up a small business in a small town.

“We did have late payments our first and second year,” he said. “We were struggling starting up a small business. … We had some late payments here in Gering, long since paid them all. I don’t know the exact number of days — probably the longest late payment we had was maybe 30 days, maybe 45 days — but they’ve all long since been paid. We’ve never since missed a rental payment in 2021.”

Heath confirmed that the late rent has since been paid off. When asked why the lease wasn’t terminated at the time of the late rent payments, Heath said, “I wasn’t … in this position at that time, so I can’t answer for what happened back then.”

With the City of Gering having terminated the former lease agreement on April 15 after giving the Pioneers and the Expedition League 10 days to comply, the city then advertised a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a summer collegiate wood-bat baseball team at Oregon Trail Park Stadium for the 2022 season over the course of three days, April 19-21. In a statement released Friday, April 22, the city said it notified the Pioneers and the Expedition League of the RFP. According to the RFP, all proposals had to be handed in by Friday, April 22, at 8 a.m.

According to city council meeting documents, a public bid opening was held at Gering City Hall on Friday, April 22. Heath said that the opening was open to the public; however, there is no evidence that the date and time of the opening was advertised to the public at all.

Heath told the Gering Courier that while the proposal paperwork has instructions about when the bid opening will take place in order for those submitting proposals to know about it, he has never considered the language in the RFP advertisement to say such, as it’s usually only “the contractors or the people submitting the proposal” who are interested.

“The public usually never cares about (bid openings and RFP openings),” he said.

According to council documents, the Western Nebraska Pioneers were the only ones to submit a proposal, and “after careful review of the proposal, city staff recommend(ed) that HF Baseball, LLC d/b/a Western Nebraska Pioneers, be selected as the collegiate wood-bat baseball team to play at Oregon Trail Park Stadium for the 2022 Summer Season.”

City council documents revealed that the criteria for proposal selection did not include a credit check. When asked if the city performed one, Heath said, “No, we haven’t done that, but in the new contract, we have put provisions in there to hopefully prevent that (late payments), and we believe that they’ll follow that contract. … I think it’s a contract that’s going to work for both the city and the team and be more beneficial for both the city and the team.”

The city council took the city staff’s recommendation to approve the new lease agreement without discussion. Following the rest of council business, several Gering residents used the open comment period to request transparency from the city as it pertained to the process of putting the Pioneers back at Oregon Trail Park Stadium.

“The city has failed to uphold its fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers,” Gering resident A.J. Moore said, citing a failed venture in Aberdeen, South Dakota, by Chuck and Mayra Heeman with another of their teams, the Hub City Hubshots, as one reason the city should not have entered into another agreement with them. “Mr. Heeman (has had) late payments on, I believe, every payment that he has paid for his lease of the Pioneers field. Although I have enjoyed going to Pioneers games and enjoyed that time, I feel that this decision was made before this bidding process even started, and having a contract in place for the city to sign with HF Baseball is somewhat a slap in the face to the taxpayer. His past record has shown late payments, failed ventures with other teams, and we continue to do business with him.”

Gering resident Wade Brashear said, “Why were we not informed as citizens about these breaches of contract? Why were these remedies situations not publicized, talked about? Why were we not talking about this issue before we approved it? Transparency is the only thing I’m asking for. I’m asking for leadership.”

Following these comments, Mayra Heeman took the podium to ask individuals to get all the proof first, and to come to her and Chuck with any questions.

“We struggled our first year like anyone — any mom and pop type of business. We’re not a conglomerate; we’re not millionaires, but we pulled every freaking penny that we have saved our entire life, including 401Ks, credit cards maxed out, to make our dream come true,” she said. “We’ve always been very transparent.”

Asked by the Star-Herald what “proof” Mayra was referring to, Chuck Heeman alleged that the owner of the Expedition League made false promises and defaulted on payments. He said that his wife, Mayra, also had a heart attack during that time. Heeman claims the couple turned over the team to the Expedition League, while he admitted that owner Steve Wagner alleges that the team failed because of neglect.

Heeman said that another one of the reasons that the Pioneers’ rent payments were often late in their first years was because they had attempted to start three different teams at the same time: Casper Horseheads, Western Nebraska Pioneers and Hub City Hubshots.

“We bit off more than we can chew,” he said.

With the new lease agreement in place, the Western Nebraska Pioneers are set to host their first home ballgame of the season Friday, May 27.

The lawsuit between the Pioneers and the Expedition League is still pending. The Expedition League’s motion for a temporary restraining order to prohibit the Pioneers from playing will be heard in court May 9, according to Attorney Terrance Moore, the league’s attorney, in statements to the Gering Courier earlier this month. The case is playing out in Pennington County, South Dakota.

In other business, the council approved Keno Fund requests by Allred Brothers Fireworks Show for $5,000, Gering Merchants Association for $5,000 and Community Ever Green House for $25,000. The council also approved bids for a new light duty rescue truck for the fire department and the equipment and materials for the new ballpark substation transformer project.

*This article originally appeared in the Scottsbluff Star-Herald on April 25, 2022.