Queasy?

$27 MM for the Town Majal makes me queasy!

Council- Please eliminate the rec department and hand it over to a non- profit organization. There is nothing left to run as al the clubs have seceded already. Take half the money saved and give it back to tax payers and the other half can be used to fund debt service.

I was at WB this weekend. Thousands of people out there. How many visited Town Hall this week? (I would guess less than 10)

Playa - You make a very good point but take it one step further. Last night we heard all about safety when talking about lighting. I remain confused since I thought the Township already took down all of the unsafe lights last year. I certainly hope that didn't only take down SOME of unsafe lights. BUT have you ever seen a pakring lot more unsafe than the WB North lot on a Friday night during lacrosse season? Poor lighting, woefully inadequate parking surfaces, bad drainage, no signage, misplaced parking bumpers. I would guess that nearly 500 people were at that field on Friday, all exposed to that parking lot and yet we are instead fixing lights tha tmay or may not be unsafe. If they are unsafe, take them down until private fundraising is generated to pay for the balance. Can you imagine being the Township's insurance carrier and risk management consultant????

KJL: Yeah. Why should township pay for new Pryor lights? Let them be paid for w/ "private fundraising."

Come on Brew, you were at the meeting, you heard the facts, baseball is already at $300k and the amount will only go up. My favorite councilman even acknowledged as much and even speculated that baseball and its private contrubutions may even be MORE than the cost of the Pryor work.

Hey HB does that mean the township shouldnt pay for town hall?? How about next time your street needs repairs, do I have to pay for it?? Which project are you sayin is ok for taxes to pay for and which arent?? Maybe those taxpayers who want fields and lights and get a rebate from town hall and those who want town hall can get a rebate from fields. Thats fair since town hall requires new taxes (NNT wont like this LOL) and fields/lights do not.

Be careful Ed, that's a tough crowd you're dealing with.

Thank you Our Town! I thought it was pretty good myself. I think people are finally realizing that it is a colossal waste of Money. Like George Foreman Below.

What young family cares at all about town hall? They'd rather have better recreational facilities for their children.

Homey,

If 2.8 is $4million is that before or after grants, contributions, etc and if so how much is town hall at $15 million plus interest less NO MONEY costing the taxpayers. Are the employees contributing to town hall? How about we outsouce REC and use the savings to pay for fields

And how much is the estimated cost of town hall with interest 15 million plus?? How much in new taxes will this require??

Stellar leadership? For what ? Playing Politics?

Let's do the following:

1. Eliminate the Rec department and all employees (Save Salaries and pension)
2. Outsource all events to another organization (how about YMCA?)
3. Give all leagues to the clubs that seceded already and are run by volunteers.
4. Form a non profit to manage all fields and recreation in town run by volunteers. Each club pays in and gets field useage..

Save over $350K per year

Give 1/2 to takpayers
Take the rest and cover the bond debt.

How about that NNT?

Now.... That would be sound leadership.........

Hey Playa,

While I'm all for saving money and giving it back to the people, there is a fundamental issue of services that your note addresses...or should I say ignores.

I don't know anyone in the Rec. department, but I assume they do something. They may be overpaid, they may be lazy, they might be superman or wonder women...I don't know. I'm gonna assume they do something. Who's gonna do that, your outsourcer?

Outsourcers provide services that either you don't have or feel you can deliver more efficiently by leveraging their existing knowledge and scale. Club scheduling websites are a good example of renting someone else's intellectual property to make your life easier. Events are labor intensive, and usually end up costing more to deliver. If not up front....give it time. Adding a profit motive to an otherwise basic service drives up costs over time. The Y won't be free.

If the leagues are willing to take on more responsibilities, then sign 'em up. Pretty soon they're going to run out of volunteers and have to hire someone to replace the people you fired. Saves tax dollars, harms community and creates a caste system for participation. Not sure that's good.

Finally, NFP's have costs to operate. Need money for that and people when the volunteers run out.

Like I said, I'm all for saving money, but your "leadership" is about reducing services and creating temporary cost shifts supported primarily by a small volunteer army.

Is there a plan B?

frED,

You are right. Brickman isn't in Moorestown either but they cut our BOE lawns. Why can't the YMCA do a better job than the current Rec employees? Just eliminate it and the free market will take over.

Townie,

From what I understand. The Recreation P & L looks like this:

Revenues $100 K
Expenses $700 K (not including healthcare pensions, etc)

Net cost to town $600 K.

Sounds like an easy target for budget reduction when we are talking about a $1 MM tax increase.

All I am asking for is to let the free market determine the real cost of recreation in Moorestown. Surely a $100K+ director is not marketwise.

How about this question: Why does Cinnaminson, Delran, and Mount Laurel have a recreation director? Why not let a private company do the same thing and share the cost?

Seems like an awful lot of overhead that is redundant.

Plan B is eliminating recreation in Moorestown.

Parents and Volunteers will pick up the slack anyway with volunteer organizations .

Ask yourself, what is the most efficient way to run something? Answer- though volunteers. Why? because they want to spend the least amount of time on BS and the most on actually getting something done.That is way government will never be efficient.

Gkeeper- Agree, but the township is not responsible for feeding people in this town. That is the responsibility of the individual (but 50 MM people are now on foodstamps so I guess the federal govt is taking that on.)

We don't need a town Majal but I have put forth several times the way to fund fields without raising taxes. Just eliminate a department and the funding is there.

$27MM is a complete waste of money.