What really happened to South Strabane Parks and Wreck?

What really happened to South Strabane Parks and Wreck?

By Judi Panasik
The Weekly Recorder
May 2, 2008

I would like to apologize for not writing this article sooner. But the story of the demise of the South Strabane Parks and Recreation Board is not a simple story that happened over two or three meetings. And it wasn’t the result of two supervisors asking a few questions. I will try in as few words as possible to explain what took about two years to accomplish and is documented on hours of videotape for anyone who doesn’t believe the following story.

It started two years ago when I began attending township meetings over the TIF (tax increment financing). I was at a South Strabane Agenda meeting, back when they were held, when bids were being opened for new ball-fields. I remember the bids were close to $900,000 to a million dollars.

Someone I would discuss the TIF with said they suspected part of the agenda for some people voting in favor of the TIF was to get money for the fields and the park. And although he has denied it, according to the parks board at the time, Ex-Supervisor Tony Zelenka had spoke with Bass Pro and they had promised to put a proficiency pond in the new South Strabane Park. It was also ironic that the $700,000 the Trinity School Board was getting from the TIF was the amount mentioned by Zelenka at one of the Supervisor meetings that he was hoping to get from them to go toward the ball-fields. That deal between the township and school district fell through.

But this is what started my involvement with the Parks and Recreation Board. I went to my first meeting asking questions as to why they were building ball-fields in a township that already had about 15 of them. I was told the park was designed by Pashek, the planner they had hired. They said Pashek was the one who came up with what was going to be in the park. I was to find out later that this was not the case.

On April 23, Jim Pashek came to a South Strabane Supervisor Meeting and answered some questions. He stated that his firm designed the park according to what the former parks and recreation board wanted.

At the first parks meeting I also asked if they could put up a tennis net on one of the tennis courts behind the township building. Chairman Mark Murphy told me that I would need to bring in 50 people who wanted to play tennis before they would put up a net. He informed me that kids who tore the nets down and put up skate ramps were using the tennis courts. They refused to put up a net in favor of the kids that had no regard for township property, set fires and shot out lights on the courts. I also questioned why there were no tennis courts in the new park since there are none in the township if the ones behind the municipal building weren’t being maintained. Again I was told that Pashek designed the plan. At later meetings I would be told that they would never put a tennis court in South Strabane.

So being the journalist that I am I obtained a copy of Pashek Plan. I read through it and found several interesting facts. First, the group that helped design the parks wasn’t residents but instead were special interest groups mainly from ball clubs. Second, there was a survey that put ball-fields on the bottom of the resident’s list of wants. They also put a Skate Park at the bottom, but we later found out these were the priorities of the parks board and several supervisors. Tennis courts were higher on the list with walking trails being at the top.

After reading the plan and calling Jim Pashek, which I have documented and can be confirmed by others that have spoken with him, the board told Pashek what they wanted and the park was designed accordingly. He said the only thing that residents wanted that was on the survey that he wouldn’t suggest was a pool because our population was too small for supporting one.

Up to the end, Murphy said that it was Pashek that designed the park. What Murphy and Zelenka didn’t bring to the public’s attention was there personal involvement with Washington Youth Baseball and TWIST Softball, both of which are using the new ball-field at no cost. Other parks charge leagues to use their fields, but these two leagues, which were never discussed at meetings, are now using South Strabane’s for free. Who made that decision? At one meeting regarding Billy Bell Park, Zelenka made a statement that his girls (referring to TWIST) weren’t going to be using a port a john, he wanted the pavilion bathroom open to them, but was not concerned about anyone else.

When asked if he thought voting on these issues was a conflict of interest, Zelenka said no.

When I asked Murphy if anything could be added to the park he said no. He also stated that the park had to be done in the order that Pashek planned its phases. In the past two years Murphy would take actions that were in direct contrast to his remarks.

Murphy and the parks board approved a disc golf proposal by Ryan Julian. Controversial Supervisor Lou DePretis, according to Julian’s own words, was supporting the project and was his father’s accountant. When I brought up to Murphy what he told me a year before about nothing being able to be added to the park, he said that it was incorrect.

But I have tapes and articles to back me up. Julian’s plan has yet to be given final approval.

Murphy and DePretis also tried to push through a skate park, but that was also stopped. The Skate Park was at the end of Pashek’s plan and we are still in the first phases. When I asked about doing the park in the order that it was designed, Murphy said that because of where the Skate Park sat it could be done next. What happened to needing to be done in order?

So whenever it benefited them, it was possible.

But it wasn’t just the ball fields and questions on the new park that kept me looking into the parks board. They were rude on several occasions to other residents and myself. They would also make negative comments about the South Strabane Police force and Supervisors. They didn’t want suggestions, they were their own club and we were intruding. They had their planned activities and own agenda. But that just made me want to dig more.

I watched how Murphy ran the whole board and the others just showed up to the 30 minute meetings to let everyone know where there activities stood. Murphy did the budget and ran everything else. However he was weak on follow through and general management. Regarding the disc golf course Murphy failed to research the project.

Now Supervisor Tom Moore and his wife Connie spent hours researching disc golf and had to bring the information to both parks and supervisor meetings. They weren’t on any boards at the time. Murphy was just pushing it through without any knowledge. The same can be said for the rest of the parks board that voted in favor of the plan.

Many members missed several meetings a year and some never said a word at all. Murphy was their leader and they went along with whatever he wanted without question as long as they got their events. Many of the trips were filled before residents were made aware of them. Residents have also stated that they never saw any of the trips advertised in the local paper.

There were a lot of decisions that seemed to be made outside of the parks meetings. And because the minutes of the meeting were sparse it was hard to tell what was really said or what happened.

I also started to research the parks budget. Upon doing this and investigating the million-dollar ball-field I spoke with other local parks boards and managers.

The first thing they couldn’t believe was the fact the township was spending a million dollars on two ball-fields, or $300,000 for one. They were also surprised at the number of ball-fields already in the township and the need for two more.

The second thing that surprised them was the amount in the budget for advertising, $3,500 a year. One of the much larger townships that spends around a million or more on parks and recreation a year said they didn’t spend anywhere near that amount for advertising.

Other townships told me that they don’t sponsor trips for residents. South Strabane has at least three a year. One of them stated it was not their responsibility to entertain, it was to provide recreation.

The South Strabane Parks board also had a paid secretary and their meeting usually ran around 30 minutes. Other townships said their meetings ran around two hours and they used township secretaries to record minutes, not a paid individual who didn’t work for the township.

South Strabane Parks and Recreation Board’s secretary was the wife of their treasurer and was making $1,200 a year for 11 meetings and making a few flyers. When asked if the township had records of giving her a 1099, the township office said they did not, and had no records of how or when she was paid. They were also not sure if the treasurer was bonded, but he was in charge of a checking account that had over $50,000 in it at times.

At one meeting when I was trying to be nice and told the board I liked coming to their meetings I was besieged with insults from the board. The treasurer, Jack Green, told me I put in an article that they went to basketball games and the opera, and that they never did that. When I told him that I stated it was in their budget to go and did he read the budget, the conversation stopped.

During this time I was also being yelled at by Murphy who told me I said they were building a million-dollar ball-field.

I said it was almost a million and that they were planning on spending over $900,000, not counting what overages would be, but Murphy kept yelling and told me to turn off my camera, but I refused.

From the beginning to the end the now estranged parks and rec board never changed. They were consistent about their aggression and outbreaks of hostility toward the public.

The resignation of the South Strabane Parks Board was misrepresented to the public. Both Supervisors Tom Moore and Ed Mazur were made to look like scapegoats. Supervisor Bob Hollick, like those who walked off the board, twisted the words of these two men who only wanted to look at the books of the parks board after I brought some questions to light in my articles.

Moore had stated, regarding the paid secretary and money being paid out to the chairman, that a volunteer board should serve without profiting from the township. After researching the budgets I saw that Murphy, who brush hogs for the township was getting $1450 in 2007. In 2008 Murphy was charging $4,000, with no one questioning him.
At a supervisors meeting Hollick had the audacity to ask the board to withhold paying Moore because of his statement about volunteer boards. Moore is not on a volunteer board. He ran for and was elected to his office. He attends two supervisor meetings a month that run on average over 2 ½ hours. He also attends other meetings as a liaison and does research outside of the meetings. As far as we know Moore isn’t benefiting from being a supervisor. But Hollick was relentless and cruel at the meeting. Hollick also didn’t tell the other supervisors or the public that the check he was refusing to sign for Moore was reimbursement for a township-approved course for newly elected supervisors.

As the finance committee chairman of the township, Hollick is the one that should have been catching the discrepancies of the parks board budget.

At one meeting the Green’s, who ran the New York Trip refused to take two buses. It was stated that the trip costs the township around $900. They budget for $1,800. What happens to the other $900 every year? In the 2008 budget Murphy asked for $3,600 for the same trip, why?

In 2006, 2007 and 2008 Murphy budgeted $4,800 for security lighting around the walking trail in Billy Bell Park. If they were getting the money in their budget why didn’t they put up the lights? And where is the money going?
It was also in the budget for both 2007 and 2008 to put a water fountain and plumbing in Driscoll Park for $2,300, where did that money go?

There were also questions regarding the cost and purchase of infield mix for the ball-fields. The budget stated that infield mix for one ball field was going to me more than the cost for two ball fields at a different park. Infield mix was over $3,000 for each park.

In 2006 there was a carry over of about $12,000, but in 2007 they asked for more money and the same things. In 2007 just by taking a quick look at the budget there was about $11,000 not spent, but again the budget almost mirrored the year before and was increased. Why?

Murphy told the supervisors at their meeting that he needed the carry over because they didn’t get there allotted budget until April and needed the money. Mazur suggested the board start going through the township office like the other departments do instead of having their own checkbook. This would allow them to have funds immediately and not have to worry about funds. To this one of the parks members asked that they be given a credit card instead. He felt it would be easier on them to be able to get whatever they wanted without filling out paperwork. Remember their budget was over $50,000 this year. Again they didn’t want to follow township procedures but wanted to do things their own way.

All Moore and Mazur wanted to do was have someone take a look at things I pointed out. Hollick has questioned why the township bought one-cent stamps but isn’t questioning the discrepancies that are thousands of dollars. He has also gone after the road crew for going over budget on salt for the roads when we’d had an unusual year with ice, but again not parks and recreation.

Why did the parks board become so outraged? Moore and Mazur didn’t even make a big deal about the issue, it was the parks board that made it a point at a meeting which they called for with the supervisors to let the public know they were upset that they were being questioned.

Before Moore was made a liaison to the parks board he had attended several parks meetings over the last two years. At these meetings Moore and his wife were often treated with disrespect, like myself. At one meeting I attended parks and rec member Gary Fonner made a comment that he wishes the Moore’s were at the meeting because he would tell them what he thought of them. This I also have on tape. Through it all Moore was never rude to the board he just offered suggestions and asked questions.

After attending the January parks and rec meeting to let them know he was their new liasion, and after not agreeing with all of their ideas, the board asked to have the special meeting with all of the supervisors.

To those of us that attended the meeting it appeared that the board members planned on quitting before they arrived.

Fonner took Moore and Mazur’s words, twisted them and went into a tirade. He then quit and was followed by others. Bill Glass, who was the newest member of the board, had barely said a word at a parks meeting in two years. He did manage to scream at me on his stampede out to get my article right. I suggest Glass read the budgets like he should have been doing as a board member.

Those who didn’t quit at the meeting that night followed within days.

But was it a loss?

Ironically they were also mad that several supervisors wanted to do a new survey for the park. Members on the parks board, who didn’t follow the first survey, became outraged over the idea of taking another one. Why?
They were more of a club than a board. Murphy ran everything and the others just worried about trips. Nothing was being planned and executed except personal agendas.

There was no professionalism displayed at meetings as residents were treated like second class citizens.
The worst part is they never went off the board. When there term was up, if the supervisors didn’t get a letter saying they wanted off they automatically went back on and other residents had no way of participating. So a board member could be on indefinitely. Is that fair to the residents?

Both Moore and Mazur have taken the hit in public for the resignation of the board. But if the parks board had nothing to hide why did they get so upset? Moore and Mazur were not making a big deal about the questions regarding the budget. If the parks board hadn’t made it a big deal it would have come and gone, if there was nothing to hide.

Behind the scenes I have been given kudos for the resignations. That after writing about them for two years they finally folded.

As far as I’m concerned Moore, Mazur and myself did nothing more than our jobs. They are looking into something that was brought to their attention by a resident, and as a journalist I followed and investigated a story that affects the residents.

The new parks board has a big job ahead of them. They have to start from scratch and define what the board is going to do. Their main job will be figuring out what is going on with the new park and discussing with the supervisors what they want them to do.

I would like to thank those who resigned from the South Strabane Parks and Recreation board for several things. First for giving me endless stories over the years. Second for validating my writing and showing me the power of the pen. Third, for not putting up the tennis net and refusing to discuss the possibility of a tennis court. Truth be told, if you would have just put up a net I probably would never have kept coming to your meetings.