Pair want to hand off bill to football association

A pair of members of the North Lebanon Parks and Recreation Board agreed last week that the township should send the Ebenezer Football Association a bill for violating its facilities-use contract with the township.

[Oversight is lacking]

So why is Sheila Warluft a paid Township employee only inspecting this building every 3 or 4 months out of a year ?

The best interests of North Lebanon Township taxpayers would be far better served if our paid Township manager would start keeping a much closer eye of Township rental properties.

Heck, she could have seen the AC UNIT without even entering the building.

[thomas paine]

I seen that A. C unit about the middle of August, but you cannot pick on the athletic assoc., who do you think put Brensinger in office. Another question, who pays for the lights to be turned on at night for football practice? And on and on and on. TO Oversight, I'd like to hear some comments from you, it seems like you and i have few problems with N. L. T.

[Football Mom]

Funny how this year a few parents/players left the league on a 'no-so-good' note and now all of a sudden NLT is worried about the football association having an AC unit in the building and what kind of paint is being used on the field! LD News - I think it's pretty sad that you would even publish this article w/o talking to the league first! Our boys practice/play their hearts out and aren't off doing God knows what and NLT says 'go else where'- is anyone even thinking about our kids!?!?!

[Anti Football]

Hey football mom, this isn't about the boys, it's about the football association putting a hole in the wall of a township building without obtaining permission. Just as the boys need to follow the rules on the field, the adults need to follow the rules off of the field. What type of lesson or messege are we sending to our children if we say "we don't need to get permission to deface this building"?

[Football Mom]

There never was a hole put in a township building - get your facts straight!

[EBENEZER FOOTBALL PARENT]

LIKE PAUL HARVEY WOULD SAY YOU NEED TO HEAR THE REST OF THE STORY. THERE WAS NO HOLE PUT IN THE WALL IT WAS ALREADY THERE! GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT AND WE PAY $500.00 TO USE THAT FACILITY. WE USE PAINT FOR GRASS AND ARE NOT KILLING IT!! IT IS WORE DOWN FROM PRACTICING BUT THAT IS IT!! I GUESS THE TOWNSHIP WOULD RATHER HAVE THESE BOYS OUT GETTING IN TROUBLE ON THE STREET THAN PLAYING ON THE FIELD AND I KNOW ALOT OF PARENTS ARE TAXPAYERS OF NL TOWNSHIP SO I THINK IT IS THEIR FIELDED TOO. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH A EMPTY FIELD? EBENEZER HAS PLAYED THERE FOR YEARS. IT'S ASHAME THAT WE ARE GETTING ALL THIS NEGATIVE COMMENTS AND THAT NOBODY CONTACTED THE ASSOCIATION. IF I HAD A PROBLEM WITH A RENTER I'D TALK TO THEM WOULDN'T YOU? NOBODY TALK TO ANY EBENEZER OFFICER ABOUT A PROBLEM THEY JUST PUT IT IN THE NEWS!! THAT'S THE PITS!!

[EBENEZER FOOTBALL PARENT]

WE DID NOT DEFACE THE BUILDING EITHER MR. ANTI FOOTBALL GET YOUR FACT STRAIGHT!! WE DID PUT AC IN WITHOUT PERMISSION BUT IT WAS USED VERY LITTLE ON GAME DAY SO THE KIDS COULD COOL DOWN AT HALF TIME. BUT WE DO PLAY $500 AND SUPPLY TOLIET PAPER AND PAPER TOWELS FOR OUR GAMES!! WE REALLY ARE NOT BAD PEOPLE.

[Football Mom]

What about the Township renting out the same field for Fall Baseball the same time as Football - I'm sure they are getting their $500.00 from both organizations during the same time......nothing like a little double dipping there.....

[EBENEZER FOOTBALL PARENT]

YEAH YOU GOT THAT RIGHT $1000 FOR FIELDS?

[EBENEZER FOOTBALL PARENT]

THE EBENEZER FOOTBALL OFFICERS WERE AT THE TOWNSHIP BUILDING ON TUESDAY NOVEMBER 3 AT 7 P.M. FOR MEETING BUT THERE WASN'T ANY DUE TO ELECTION. THEY WERE TOLD BY NL TOWNSHIP MANAGER IT WAS NOV 3 NOT NOV 4 WHEN THE POLLING PEOPLE TRIED TO CONTACT CHERIE GRUMBINE,SHE COULDNT BE REACHED TO FIND OUT THE MEETING WAS ON THE 4TH NOT THE 3RD.

[Also a football parent]

I think you are the ones wrong here teaching our kids bad things. From what I understand we signed an agreement saying we wouldn't do anything to someone elses building we don't own. Just because we leease it's use doesn't give us the right to make a hole in it. They just side that building not too long ago, we put the hole there.we are the ones going to ruin it for our kids,now lets grow up and admit when we are wrong!

EBENEZER FOOTBALL PARENT wrote:

LIKE PAUL HARVEY WOULD SAY YOU NEED TO HEAR THE REST OF THE STORY. THERE WAS NO HOLE PUT IN THE WALL IT WAS ALREADY THERE! GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT AND WE PAY $500.00 TO USE THAT FACILITY. WE USE PAINT FOR GRASS AND ARE NOT KILLING IT!! IT IS WORE DOWN FROM PRACTICING BUT THAT IS IT!! I GUESS THE TOWNSHIP WOULD RATHER HAVE THESE BOYS OUT GETTING IN TROUBLE ON THE STREET THAN PLAYING ON THE FIELD AND I KNOW ALOT OF PARENTS ARE TAXPAYERS OF NL TOWNSHIP SO I THINK IT IS THEIR FIELDED TOO. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH A EMPTY FIELD? EBENEZER HAS PLAYED THERE FOR YEARS. IT'S ASHAME THAT WE ARE GETTING ALL THIS NEGATIVE COMMENTS AND THAT NOBODY CONTACTED THE ASSOCIATION. IF I HAD A PROBLEM WITH A RENTER I'D TALK TO THEM WOULDN'T YOU? NOBODY TALK TO ANY EBENEZER OFFICER ABOUT A PROBLEM THEY JUST PUT IT IN THE NEWS!! THAT'S THE PITS!!

[Also a football parent]

This is exactly correct, and how do you install an air conditioner without a hole? You shouldn't have or need air conditioning at halftime of a football game anyway. What kind of football players do we want?

Anti Football wrote:

Hey football mom, this isn't about the boys, it's about the football association putting a hole in the wall of a township building without obtaining permission. Just as the boys need to follow the rules on the field, the adults need to follow the rules off of the field. What type of lesson or messege are we sending to our children if we say "we don't need to get permission to deface this building"?

[Also a football parent]

Again easy to blame someone who has nothing to do with it. What does it matter who or when the AC was seen. Ther is a signed contract sayingf we couldn't do that so why did we? Who even told our president to put it in anyway? I didn;t!!

Oversight is lacking wrote:

So why is Sheila Warluft a paid Township employee only inspecting this building every 3 or 4 months out of a year ?
The best interests of North Lebanon Township taxpayers would be far better served if our paid Township manager would start keeping a much closer eye of Township rental properties.
Heck, she could have seen the AC UNIT without even entering the building.

[Taxpayer]

If thats all your paying you should not be complaining. Talk to people in your neigboring towns. I am frankly a bit upset I have no children and you are wasting my tax dollars like that.

Football Mom wrote:

What about the Township renting out the same field for Fall Baseball the same time as Football - I'm sure they are getting their $500.00 from both organizations during the same time......nothing like a little double dipping there.....

[thomas paine]

You put the A. C. to cool the kids down? You gotta be kidding me

[Anti Football]

When I was growing up playing baseball and football, we were lucky to have a water faucet to drink from. We didn't need a water cooler or air-conditioined break-room, and we had fun doing it!

The township rents the facility not the rights to that facility. The football association took it upon themselves to change to facility to suit thier need without getting it approved.

Again I ask, what kind of example are you setting for the children that are on that football team? In a few years I am sure we will be reading articles of these same kids defacing private property and the parents will complain saying it is some one elses fault. Wrong! It will be your fault.

[Anti Football]

Also a football parent wrote:

This is exactly correct, and how do you install an air conditioner without a hole? You shouldn't have or need air conditioning at halftime of a football game anyway. What kind of football players do we want? <quoted text>

Get permission first.

[Anti Football]

EBENEZER FOOTBALL PARENT wrote:

...IF I HAD A PROBLEM WITH A RENTER I'D TALK TO THEM WOULDN'T YOU? NOBODY TALK TO ANY EBENEZER OFFICER ABOUT A PROBLEM THEY JUST PUT IT IN THE NEWS!! THAT'S THE PITS!!

Maybe they should just evict you from the facility and revoke the contract... Now where do your children play football. You are an organization that now has a documented history of not following rules of the land owner: who will rent to you again?

Yes the township could have handled it better also, but the association made the first wrong by changing the township facility without permission: who is at fault?

[EBENEZER FOOTBALL PARENT]

We are not wasting anybodies tax dollars. We did wrong with not asking permission to put AC in but we didn't destroy any property. LIKE I SAID BEFORE THE HOLE WAS THERE, A PREVIOUS WINDOW WAS COVERED WITH PLYWOOD. North Lebanon would have to up keep field whether we used it or not and the $500 does help pay for the lights. I think this is blown way out of poportion. I guess people don't have anything better to do but pick at Ebenezer Football Association!! It's really ashame people act like they do. We do not set bad examples for our kids. We have great kids and down the road we are not to blame for there choices so dont even go there!! Like I said this is blown way out of line!!

[Anti Football]

EBENEZER FOOTBALL PARENT wrote:

We are not wasting anybodies tax dollars. We did wrong with not asking permission to put AC in but we didn't destroy any property. LIKE I SAID BEFORE THE HOLE WAS THERE, A PREVIOUS WINDOW WAS COVERED WITH PLYWOOD. North Lebanon would have to up keep field whether we used it or not and the $500 does help pay for the lights. I think this is blown way out of poportion. I guess people don't have anything better to do but pick at Ebenezer Football Association!! It's really ashame people act like they do. We do not set bad examples for our kids. We have great kids and down the road we are not to blame for there choices so dont even go there!! Like I said this is blown way out of line!!

So by following your train of thought, North Lebanon Township would have to maintain the fields if the sports associations weren’t leasing the facilities? I disagree. If the sports fields were not maintained, it probably wouldn’t take long before the property was sold to a developer and houses constructed on the property. That would mean more real estate taxes for the township and less property taxes for other residents of North Lebanon Township: sounds like a winning situation for the taxpayers.

You claim that nothing wrong was done: you just put an air conditioner in a pre-existing hole. There was no pre-existing hole – there was a piece of plywood covering a pre-existing window that was now the exterior wall of the building. Just when does cutting a hole in a wall not constitute destruction of property?

I’m sure that if some thugs decided to rip the air conditioner out of the wall to obtain access to the building and steal all the contents, you would be the ones yelling foul and asking for retribution for your loss. Why shouldn’t the township?

Maybe those thugs saw their parents do the same thing, and maybe their parents thought it was no big deal, but “Don’t go there?” Either way the association made the mistake and the members want to dance around the responsibility for their actions.