Towamencin Youth Association board member Doug Kile, inset, details the league’s current enrollment numbers to the township supervisors on July 10, 2024.
Kid sports leagues almost back to pre-pandemic participation
Fields and courts all across Towamencin are busier than ever, and youth athlete numbers are almost back to pre-pandemic levels.
Township officials heard an update from the Towamencin Youth Association about their current enrollment numbers, their work with township staff, and plans and projects in the works.
“Historically, we have annually presented to the board our suggestions on how the township can best spend taxpayer monies, to maintain and improve upon the township-owned fields and facilities,” said TYA board member Doug Kile.
TYA receives no direct taxpayer money, and pays the township an annual contracted fee — as high as $20,500 in 2021 — to use fields and facilities owned by Towamencin, the board member told the supervisors on July 10. TYA runs numerous teams and leagues for boys and girls of all ages, with parents able to use their website as a one-stop shop for navigating league registration, schedules and more for several sports.
By James Short As he spoke, Kile showed photos of a new ballfield in Quakertown where TYA played earlier in the week, with enclosed dugouts, a roofed grandstand, and a large scoreboard, vowing that TYA wouldn’t make such requests of taxpayers.
“We’re not looking to build cathedrals for sport. We are looking simply to come here and provide guidance on what we see in other areas, maintenance that’s needed, and also how some facilities can be improved, in order to be in line with our surrounding communities,” he said.
By James Short “We don’t need this. We don’t ask for that, we don’t suggest the township spend that kind of money on something like this. We think we’re reasonable. These are merely suggestions that we make,” Kile said.
By James Short Staff are open and communicative with any TYA requests, despite the occasional disagreement, Kile added, thanking them for “a real open partnership” between the two. He then showed current enrolment numbers for TYA’s soccer, basketball, baseball and softball leagues, broken down by age and by spring or fall season, totaling just over 2,400 participants across the four sports, from age five to 45 years old.
Supervisors chairman Chuck Wilson asked if township staff had completed requests made by TYA during fall 2023’s budget season, and Kile said staff had already planted trees, added fencing, and installed netting at various ballfields, and work had begun on other upgrades. Supervisor Kofi Osei asked if enrolment numbers for TYA’s sports were at or above pre-pandemic levels, and Kile said soccer “definitely has gone up” compared to 2019, with the three other sports still below the 2019 numbers, and a noticeable gap for the age group that would have been four and five years old in 2020 and missed on that sports season.
“Glad to hear soccer’s up. That’s my sport,” Osei said.
No issues with audit
The supervisors also heard a report on the 2023 township audit, which found no major issues or deficiencies in Towamencin’s bookkeeping.
Auditor Dale Umbenhauer of Maillie LLP detailed the township’s 2023 revenues, expenses, and specifics in various funds and subcategories including the township sewer fund, and went nearly line-by-line through the roughly $10.4 million budget. Total township capital assets dipped slightly from $45.2 million in 2022 to $44.9 million in 2032, while pension investments earned roughly $149,000 in new revenue, and roughly $1.57 million in unspent COVID stimulus funds remain, and total township debt decreased from just over $11 million in 2022 to $9.2 million as of year-end 2023.
“We had an unmodified, clean opinion,” and encountered no issues working with staff to examine their records and ledgers, Umbenhauer told the board, with the audit report declaring the auditor found “nothing out of the ordinary in the current year.”
No questions or comments were made by the board, except for supervisor Joyce Snyder thanking the auditor for his work and presentation.
Roof repair change order OK’d
The supervisors also approved a $9,850 change order for a roof replacement project for the township municipal building on Troxel Road. A $91,000 contract for that project was awarded in March, Wilson told the board and public, and the overall project includes the removal and replacement of wood siding on the roofs of both the administration building, and the public meeting hall just next door.
“During preconstruction discussions, it was noted that the replacement siding would need to be painted to match the existing exterior siding,” Wilson said, and the $9,850 change order covers the additional work to do so; the board approved that change order unanimously.
Towamencin’s supervisors next meet at 7 p.m. on July 24 at the township administration building, 1090 Troxel Road. For more information visit www.Towamencin.org.
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