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Rec Board at odds with Jones Township Supervisors |
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Wednesday, 16 July 2008 |
The Jones Township Recreation Board feels underappreciated by Township Supervisors.
By Heidi Zemach
Special to The Record
JONES TWP. – Three representatives from the Jones Township Recreation Board showed up at the Township Supervisors meeting on July 14 to ask questions and voice concerns about their expected duties and the ill treatment they feel they have received.
For more than an hour, the recreation board, whose most vocal spokesperson was their Treasurer Pam Anderson, aired their concerns and verbally sparred with Supervisor/Secretary Laurie Storrar and, to a lesser degree, Chairman Jim Elinski and Supervisor Debra Shaffer.
With Rec Board President Jean Cooney, and Mary Bizzak, who schedules activities, backing her up, Anderson said she did not feel it was the Rec Board’s duty to provide the Jones Township building, where there is a gymnasium, summer programs are held along with private weddings, with fresh toilet paper and paper towels. Nor was it their duty to pull weeds from the playground by hand, as Storrar had suggested, in denying them township personnel with a weedeater.
The volunteer board was also not pleased with a $1,200 bill from the township to pay for the gym floor to be waxed, or when a loose light bulb crashed to the floor of the gym Monday, where 25 to 30 young children in the summer program were playing ball, Anderson said.
Over the past eight years, the Rec Board has contributed $43,800 for purchasing or renovating the gym floor, the park pavilion, adding new coolers, a stove, sinks, faucets, chairs and tables and a new water fountain. That sum doesn’t even include the cost of recreation programs, Anderson said.
“We are not a building maintenance committee,” Anderson said. “We’ve felt we have not been acknowledged, appreciated, or even mentioned.”
Unlike the Park Board, the Rec Board does not receive local tax dollars, but must rely on funding from memberships, weddings and the Johnsonburg/Wilcox Community Chest fundraiser, according to Anderson.
With just five overtaxed volunteers, including board members Paul Allegretto and Krissy Stelene, the Recreation Board provides summer programs for children, an Easter egg hunt, a craft show, men’s basketball and women’s volleyball, and is planning a 5K race at this weekend’s Wilcox Sesquicentennial.
“I agree your committee was never designed for building and maintenance. It was designed to provide recreational opportunities,” said Storrar. “I think maintenance of the playground equipment lies with you.”
During a summer meeting three years ago, the Rec Board agreed to pay for half of the Township paper supplies, after the township noticed that the supplies “walked out the door” following weddings, Storrar said. Those weddings also damaged the gym floor, requiring costly repairs. The Rec Board also agreed to pay half the cost of its repair.
Storrar clarified she did not authorize Township personnel to deal with overgrown weeds busting through the playground wood chips with a weed eater because she felt that pulling weeds out by hand would be more effective. Neither was she ready to tell her summer hired help to do so, Storrar said. Giving blunt assessment of the local recreation scene, she added, “your summer program is short, but top notch. The Easter egg hunt is great. Men’s basketball and women’s volleyball pretty much run by themselves. I don’t see other programs being tried by your board.”
Feeling the Rec Board was not offering enough, the Township hired a Park Recreation Director this summer to run Township-sponsored programs in the ballpark.
There shouldn’t be competition between the Rec Board and the Park Board, or the Township, all of whom share the goal of providing opportunities for the children, said Elinski.
He suggested that early next year they all get together to meet and plan ahead, so activities don’t overlap, or compete with one another. The paid Park Recreation Director could oversee all of the programs, Elinski added.
Shaffer feels there is a very dedicated corps of volunteers on each board.
“We’d do well if we can get together, work together," Shaffer said.
She also suggested that the local Cash Bash fundraiser could be jointly conducted next year, and its proceeds shared equally among all participants. The Township promised to check all of the light bulbs and breakers in the gym so that no other accidents occur.
In other business the township:
- discussed the idea of bringing more 3-Phase electricity to Wilcox in order to encourage industry to locate there.
- passed a motion to finally get Maria Kilgus a street sign to replace the one that was stolen. The sign will be wooden, square, and double-sided to discourage vandalizing, connected to its post with breakaway bolts.
- agreed to set guidelines for Karl Krouse, who asked permission to build a treated lumber fence around his salvage yard, rather than the more costly chain-link fence originally requested by the township.
- agreed to allow Russ Braun to participate on the Pennsylvania Construction Codes Advisory Committee in Harrisburg twice a year, and to congratulate him on his selection.
- tabled a request by Gary and Terri Ribovic for permission to place a permanent garage on a cement slab that is now used for a carport. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 17 July 2008 )
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