The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

October 28, 2009

UPDATE: Council starts talking about GALSA's future

By Tom Davidson

GREENVILLE — If money grew on trees, then Greenville Area Leisure Services Association would have no problems.

But GALSA’s money tree was cut down in 2003, when Greenville Area School District severed ties with the organization that oversees recreation in the Greenville area.

Since then the association has relied on financing from the borough of Greenville, which is a distressed community under the state’s Act 47 program. That designation is in part due to debt incurred to pay for a sports complex championed by former GALSA director Robert M. Good.

State-appointed Act 47 consultants have found fault with the informal organization of GALSA. It operates outside of council’s control but the borough is ultimately responsible financially and legally for GALSA actions.

After years of punting the issue for further review, borough officials are seriously considering overhauling GALSA and recreating recreation in the borough.

That drew a crowd to Wednesday’s special council meeting to talk things over.

Council President Pete Longiotti said the borough should control GALSA’s personnel and purse strings because the town paid for the $1.8 million sports complex. He’s been calling for control for five years although it’s fallen on deaf, if not defiant ears. Longiotti noted that when he first mentioned making changes in 2004 he was shouted out of order.

But last month GALSA dismissed Executive Director Erik S. Bielata to save cash, and council formed a committee to look at the future of recreation in the borough — a future that might lead to the dissolution of GALSA.

Nothing’s been decided, but officials led by councilman Brian Shipley have been studying how to better define GALSA under the borough umbrella.

Mere mention of a change filled council chambers with GALSA board members and people from GALSA-affiliated sports organizations and museums who are worried how changes would affect their groups.

“It’s not going to be done overnight,” Longiotti said of changes. “(We) want to maintain recreation in Greenville.”

When the school district “pulled out” of GALSA, “the borough took its eyes off the ball” in overseeing GALSA, Longiotti said.

GALSA board member Becky McFadden spoke on behalf of the organization, and admitted a plan for the future needs to be put into place.

Lack of such a plan — the last one was done in 1998 — along with failing to follow planned guidelines, has led to GALSA’s present predicament, Mrs. McFadden said.

“It’s never clear who is going to pay for what,” she said.

During the meeting it was clear that some council members — including Longiotti — do not communicate with GALSA board members. Instead, they have sparred separately for about a decade.

GALSA board members learned about the borough’s attempt to make changes, “in the newspaper,” Mrs. McFadden said.

Councilman Jasson Urey said many of the problems stem from lack of cash.

“We’ve got no money,” he said. “I agree the pool needs fixed, but how are we going to (pay) for this?”

It’s time the borough’s recreation program was spelled out in black and white, he said.

“Right now it’s so gray that nobody knows who’s responsible for what,” Urey said. “I want to hear from the public.”

The borough floated a $3.67 million bond in 1999 that was partially used to build 42 acres of soccer and softball fields in West Salem Township. That was also the year the school district — which covered the bulk of the salaries of GALSA’s administrative staff — notified the association it was dropping out of the organization in five years.

The association evolved over 60 years from an informal venture of the borough, school district and Greenville Community Chest (now the United Way) to an entity that’s financed almost entirely by borough taxpayers but controlled by a separate, independent board.

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