CLARKS SUMMIT - After hearing the Clarks Summit Borough Council was considering a cut to the recreation budget, members of the Abington Area Joint Recreation Board came to lobby for full funding in the upcoming fiscal year.
Board members, Abington Area Community Park affiliates and park users relayed their testimony to council members during Tuesday night's work session and asked borough council to consider finding cuts elsewhere, even suggesting raising taxes to meet their yearly obligation to the AAJRB.
"It's not a want. It's a need," said Diane Vietz, an AAJRB board member, about the park, located off Winola Road.
Clarks Summit is slated to contribute $8,000 in the proposed preliminary budget for 2013, a decrease of $7,832 from its 2012 contribution of $15,832, said Borough Manager Virginia Kehoe.
Clarks Summit, Clarks Green, Glenburn Twp., Waverly and South Abington Twp. all contribute to the AAJRB based on population, with Clarks Summit shouldering about 28 percent of that contribution, according to information from the AAJRB.
With decreasing Earned Income Tax collection throughout the borough and economic hardship, borough council members said it's getting more and more difficult to contribute their share for the park every year.
However, council President Gerrie Carey said she and everyone on council was committed to finding alternative solutions to budget cuts and scheduled a meeting for early next week with Ms. Vietz and AAJRB President Bill Risse.
"We absolutely want to sit down and go over all the nuts and bolts," Ms. Carey said. "We as a council, we want to do our part."
Contact the writer: ksullivan@timesshamrock.com, @ksullivanTT