Forks Residents Wonder, Can it Happen Here?

Tough economic times make funding youth sports no easy task for local governments or volunteer community organizations supporting youth sports. Not that long ago some $20,000 in ’s youth soccer funds went missing. The other day $10,000 in Wilson Borough football funds could not be accounted for.  

Add to that public education funding already stretched to the max. is starring at yet another gaping budget shortfall largely due to the Governor’s shortsighted and devastating education cuts. No question, money is tight.  Every penny counts if our kids are to have the educational and athletic opportunities past Lehigh Valley generations enjoyed.  

When we discover that thousands in sorely needed athletic funds have gone missing, it’s even more distressing. It can cause residents of surrounding communities to wonder: Can it happen here?

In 2010 putting in place stronger accountability for recreation funds was a major motivator for some who worked to revamp their 50-year-old Recreation Ordinance. Totally out of date and lacking a 21st century mission in a dynamic and growing Township, the old Forks Recreation Ordinance ill-served our community.    

Even worse, auditors warned that more prudent accounting practices were lacking to safeguard taxpayer funds allocated to recreation.  Many arduous, sometimes contentious meetings over several months, were held to acquire input.  All parties concerned with modernizing Forks Parks and Recreation goals and practices got involved.  

In the end nearly a quarter million in Forks recreation funds were placed under much stricter financial controls. Forks taxpayers are now protected, as best as possible, from reading troubling newspaper accounts where athletic funds went missing, as happened in Palmer and Wilson. Forks Township also hired an experienced, credentialed professional to in 2010, in a further move to monitor and secure recreation expenditures.  

Residents want to trust that their hard-earned tax dollars and voluntarily donated contributions earmarked for children’s athletics are being responsibly handled. The Forks Supervisors who voted for mechanisms to safeguard recreation funds in 2010, believed that trust, but verify, was the best policy.  

Thus far, the streamlined Parks and Recreation Ordinance has successfully served the and foremost. An ounce of prevention definitely is worth a pound of cure.