Jul 13, 2016 3 min read

An annual South Strabane Township celebration is rescheduled – but don’t call it Community Day.

“Community Day, in our books, has been lost,” said Park and Recreation Council Chairwoman Penny Steggles Tuesday during a board of supervisors meeting Tuesday.

Instead, a “Night at Community Park” will be held Aug. 27, though planning of the kid-friendly event continues to cause controversy.

Festivities were canceled in May after supervisors voted to change the venue from Community Park to Billy Bell Park.

Supervisor Thomas Moore, who was on the parks council before taking his seat on the board in January, said the festival could not be held at Community Park because of the lack of kitchen and bathroom facilities. Steggles said the 73-acre venue on Floral Hill Drive was chosen to showcase it to residents and Billy Bell was rented by a private party on the planned date, June 4. Steggles said the scale of the festival was to be reduced in hours, food and events, eliminating the need for kitchen amenities.

A food truck will provide refreshments during the Aug. 27 event, but the contentious issue is the plan for a dusk movie screening.

Steggles previously asked the board to authorize the purchase of a projector, but was directed to rent or borrow one from another municipality. Steggles said it would cost nearly the same amount to rent one as it would to buy and the recreation council has plans to host several movie events.

Steggles said she was given permission by Supervisor Jack Keisling to purchase the $1,600 projector. At the start of Steggles’ comments, Keisling apologized for the miscommunication and said he would personally purchase the projector, but later rescinded the offer.

Steggles said the council has enough money in the budget to pay for it. The council’s budget this year is $33,200. If supervisors wouldn’t authorize the purchase, a third party, whom she wouldn’t name, offered to purchase the projector for the township. Supervisors did not approve the donation.

“I just cannot understand why a group of volunteers can’t bring pleasure or comfort to … our residents, and we’re given a hassle,” Steggles said. “We have never, ever been supervised with our budget.”

Moore disagreed.

After the meeting, solicitor Jack Cambest said historically, the parks and recreation board seeks approval from supervisors before making “major purchases.”

Moore said he didn’t think the township should purchase the projector when the township has never held a movie screening. He suggested the parks council continue to work on borrowing a projector from another municipality.

In other business, supervisors approved pay raises for three administrative employees and manager John Stickle equal to what public works employees were given. The administrative employees received an extra half-percent retroactive for 2015 and one percent for 2016, giving both administrative and public works employees a pay increase of 2.5 percent for 2015 and 3 percent for 2016.

Supervisors voted to give Citizens Library a quarterly contribution of $1,000, reducing the previous contribution by $3,000. Supervisor Laynee Zipko made a motion to contribute $6,700, the full amount budgeted, but that was overturned by supervisors Bob Weber, Keisling and Moore.

The next board meeting will be held at 7 p.m. July 26.