Palmer Scraps Summer Recreation Program

Palmer Township's longtime summer park recreation program is ending.

The Palmer Township Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday night to drop the program because not enough youngsters were taking advantage of it and the cost was too high.

"The program was at our playgrounds since I was a kid," Supervisor Chairman Dave Colver said. "But year after year, the numbers have been dwindling dramatically."

Colver said the township used to subsidize costs, which averaged about $12,000 a year. He said the township used to raise about $3,000 to offset the funding.

"The numbers just aren't there," he said. "The recreation board looked at the program again and recommended that we do away with it."

Supervisor Robert Smith said one option could have been cutting the program to a few days a week, but we'd "still have to fund it."

Township Manager Christopher Christman said supervisors needed to make a decision about whether to include the funding for the program in the 2012 budget.

Instead, supervisors voted to make a motion not to fund and do away with the program.

Meanwhile, Christman said $7,000 in funding is being provided to Suburban EMS to offset the cost to purchase equipment.

"It's the least we could do for them with everything they do for us," Smith said.

"We should be doing a lot more," Colver said.

In other business, the supervisors authorized Christman to advertise an ordinance to increase the number of positions on the township's zoning hearing board from three to five.

"A lot of times one member is missing and the vote is 2-0," Colver said.