BASED ON THE DOCUMENTATION PROVIDED ON THIS BLOG, DO YOU FEEL THAT THE MUNICIPALITY HAS BEEN A RESPONSIBLE PARTNER IN THE JOINT MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT?
No 13 (59%)
Yes 9 (40%)
BASED ON THE DOCUMENTATION PROVIDED ON THIS BLOG, DO YOU FEEL THAT THE School District HAS BEEN A RESPONSIBLE PARTNER IN THE JOINT MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT?
No 19 (82%)
Yes 4 (17%)
BASED ON THE DOCUMENTATION PROVIDED ON THIS BLOG, DO YOU FEEL THAT THE YOUTH SPORTS ALLIANCE (YSA) HAS BEEN A RESPONSIBLE PARTNER IN THE JOINT MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT?
No 28 (63%)
Yes 16 (36%)
Granted, the YSA poll has been up 24 hours longer than the other two polls, but YSA is leading as the most responsible partner and the most irresponsible partner of the Joint Maintenance Agreement.
It would be helpful to the JMA partners crafting the upcoming extension to find out why people are voting the way they are voting.
How can the Municipality improve? What about the School District? Where have they fallen short? Besides YSA catching up in contributions, what else should be done?
In addition to voting, now is the time to share your opinion. Do we forget the JMA altogether? How can it be improved, so that all parties are responsible partners in the Joint Maintenance Agreement?
Update May 22 2012 6:36 p.m. Through a Right To Know, Marcia Taylor provided the following information regarding District payments for the Joint Maintenance Agreement.
District payments for Joint Maintenance Agreement
Update May 22 2012 6:36 p.m. Through a Right To Know, Marcia Taylor provided the following information regarding District payments for the Joint Maintenance Agreement.
"These documents are printouts or copies for General Fund Account No. 01-2845-37102. This account is used for Ballfield Maintenance. These documents mainly show yearly totals, and are marked accordingly. Beginning with the 2010 year, we are able to show monthly data as well, and have produced that."
District payments for Joint Maintenance Agreement
As an update, I posted the payments made by the District for the JMA.
ReplyDeleteElaine
This confirms and verifies the Municipal Manager Steve Fellers statement at a recent Commission meeting that the District has submitted required annual payments of $83,300 to the Municipality in accordance with terms of the Joint Maintenance Agreement.
ReplyDeleteBill Lewis
Bill, I hope the YSA comes forward with documentation to back up their claims regarding their dissatisfaction with the District and the Municipality.
ReplyDeleteElaine
PART !
ReplyDeleteThat's nice that the school district has submitted the annual payments, but that is not the whole story.
The condition of our fields compared with some neighboring communities one has to wonder about the quality of the maintenance.
Brumfield & Franklin argue for artificial turf but Dick's Complex in Cranberry is natural grass.
From the Cranberry muni site.
"Cranberry develops a new plan for park maintenance
Beyond the 186 acres of exquisitely-groomed grasses in Cranberry Highlands, there are 330 more acres of green space which also belong to the Township. Most are in its three major parks. But their maintenance – particularly when it involves active playing field surfaces – requires just as much thought and attention as its golf course.
So late last year, Cranberry’s Public Works department hired an experienced professional to provide the sort of systematic planning and oversight required to keep those assets in good condition. And now there’s a formal plan.
When its author, Rebecca Auchter – a graduate of Ohio State with a degree in turfgrass management – arrived in Cranberry this past December as the Township’s first-ever Grounds Maintenance Manager, she was impressed by the high volume of park upkeep which the Township’s five-member maintenance staff had been able to provide.
But with her background, including the meticulous care of several high-end country club golf links as well as two college campuses, she was less impressed by the casual record-keeping associated with that maintenance. As a result, her initial assignment was to develop a grounds maintenance plan, to be followed by a companion technical manual with all the details about keeping Cranberry’s green spaces up to par.
That plan encompasses five key areas and attempts to apply the agronomic industry’s best maintenance practices to the care of Cranberry’s outdoor spaces. Turf grass management – maintaining the playing surfaces of the athletic fields in Graham, Community, and North Boundary parks in safe and playable condition – is the plan’s top priority.
Skinned infields – the term used to identify the baselines, pitchers mounds, home plates and other spaces with exposed dirt and no grass – are also covered in the plan. Those are the maintenance responsibility of CTAA, the baseball association, rather than Public Works, although Ms. Auchter expects to provide them with the guidance necessary to care for the infields properly.
Trees and landscaped areas of the Township, which include traffic islands, the Municipal Center, the Waterpark, the fire stations and various areas within the parks, are also addressed in the plan. Plant selection, pruning, water management, and the use of specialized agricultural chemicals are all components of that plan section.
Walking trails as well as facilities such as shelters, concession buildings, picnic tables and fencing, are addressed in the plan as well, although more briefly.
Giffen Good
PART 2
ReplyDeleteOne of the major reasons for raising the maintenance bar in Cranberry’s parks is that there are lots of ways people inadvertently damage sports fields and, in the process, unwittingly create dangers to themselves. “For example, when there’s a standing puddle on an infield – how do you drain it?” Public Works Director Jason Dailey asks.
“The old habit was to start brooming that puddle off the dirt. But there’s actually a science to using a hand pump to get water out of the infield so you don’t change its contour. Because over time, when everybody squeegees and brooms that infield, it creates lips. And when a hard-hit grounder starts rolling, that lip can flip the ball five feet into the air and someone gets cracked in the jaw,” he explained.
Although some turf maintenance projects may require temporary field closures, those will be exceptions, not the rule, Auchter noted. “We’re going to do rolling closures, but on a very minimal basis. Because if the fields aren’t available to play on, then we’re not serving our purpose.”
Giffen Good
Rather than spending that $1.3 million in extra muni cash on turfing Mellon, perhaps this would be a better investment.
ReplyDelete"Cranberry develops a new plan for park maintenance
Beyond the 186 acres of exquisitely-groomed grasses in Cranberry Highlands, there are 330 more acres of green space which also belong to the Township. Most are in its three major parks. But their maintenance – particularly when it involves active playing field surfaces – requires just as much thought and attention as its golf course.
So late last year, Cranberry’s Public Works department hired an experienced professional to provide the sort of systematic planning and oversight required to keep those assets in good condition. And now there’s a formal plan.
When its author, Rebecca Auchter – a graduate of Ohio State with a degree in turfgrass management – arrived in Cranberry this past December as the Township’s first-ever Grounds Maintenance Manager, she was impressed by the high volume of park upkeep which the Township’s five-member maintenance staff had been able to provide.
But with her background, including the meticulous care of several high-end country club golf links as well as two college campuses, she was less impressed by the casual record-keeping associated with that maintenance. As a result, her initial assignment was to develop a grounds maintenance plan, to be followed by a companion technical manual with all the details about keeping Cranberry’s green spaces up to par.
That plan encompasses five key areas and attempts to apply the agronomic industry’s best maintenance practices to the care of Cranberry’s outdoor spaces. Turf grass management – maintaining the playing surfaces of the athletic fields in Graham, Community, and North Boundary parks in safe and playable condition – is the plan’s top priority. "
Not reinventing the wheel, Commissioner Linfante- looking for ways to make it more efficient!
Giffen Good
A good start perhaps to improving our recreation facilities and forming Joint Maintence Agreements?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.twp.cranberry.pa.us/DocumentCenter/Home/View/1558
Giffen Good
The Municipality's verifying annual $83,300 payments from the District confirms, closes the loop and proves that the District had to use unauthorized tax funds in lieu of "legally bound" YSA payments...which seems to be not only irregular but perhaps illegal because this was not made public or approved by the SB in a public meeting.
ReplyDeleteLike I said. The District was bank rolling the YSA. But the SB is more concerned about 3 grand here or 4 grand there. If they had kept track of the YSA's contributions more carefully, look at what $30,000 buys on the reduction list. If the YSA can contribute what they owe every year, that would clearly be a good thing.
ReplyDeleteElaine
That would seem to be the case but wouldn't or shouldn't this unauthorized use of tax funds been uncovered in the audits?
ReplyDeleteI believe this is exactly the reason Hart, Fraasch and others argued for switching auditors every few years.
Giffen Good
Which brings us right back to this post, A case of deflected argumentation.
ReplyDelete"Sarbanes–Oxley and the PSBA recommend changing auditors every five years. Later, during the vote on the contract, Mr. Goldman asks if there is a "requirement or recommendation" to change auditors and how long have we had our current auditors. Mrs. Klein answers and says there is no legal requirement for the District to change independent auditors, and does not answer the second part of his question. But Mr. Goldman didn't ask if there was a legal requirement only; he asked if there was a "requirement or recommendation" to change auditors. The rational answer would have been, "There is no requirement to change auditors every five years, but Sarbanes-Oxley and the PSBA do in fact recommend it."
These are the same auditors who missed the $800,000 or so in unpaid parking tickets during the Parking Authority's tenure.
Elaine
Beyond YSA/JMA this throws up cautionary red flags regarding any PK fund raising efforts.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to say donate a large check for the HS library renovation, I'd want to be damn sure it's going to the library and not to the municipality to cover delinquent YSA contributions or Dr. Steinhauer's extra vacation time.
Giffen Good
Not concerned about fundraising efforts, read this Trib story about CalU.
ReplyDelete"Armenti was fired after a special audit cited more than $6.2 million in cost overruns in the construction of the $59 million Convocation Center that increased the annual debt payments from $1 million to more than $2.5 million, state system officials said.
The audit found that Armenti misled the system when he reported that Cal U had raised $2 million in donations toward the center, when it raised only $4,000. The $2 million figure came from grants earmarked for other purposes.
The audit questioned the relationship between the university and two nonprofits, Student Association Inc. and the Foundation for California University of Pennsylvania.
The two organizations chipped in to pay more than $92,000 for a private box at Consol Energy Center in 2011 and this year, according to an internal memo from the system's Office of Internal Audit and Risk Assessment to Pandeladis.
Auditors discovered that Armenti had access to three accounts at the foundation that he could use at his discretion."
Giffen Good
I am still hoping to hear from those who felt the parties involved in the JMA didn't live up to their expectations. Specifics would help. And if you can use your real name, it would help your credibility. The municipal meeting is Tuesday. Everyone is reading this, but no one is commenting on the specifics. This would be useful if another JMA Extension is discussed.
ReplyDeleteElaine