Our Park and Recreation Committee has spent a year on a similar path as many other P&R Coms in the county and across the country, with an announcement that there was no money available for park programs. We in Plumstead are in an even more critical state, because we are all volunteers and there is no "park staff" dedicated to park affairs. As a result, when we started up this year, we made a commitment to raise our own funds and manage our own park programs with a secondary obligation to find money inside our own programs to pay for them. As a result, we have had a very successful year providing programs with no cost to the Township and even ended up with a balance in our account to expand into more programs next year. Committee members have each taken on specific tasks, made commitments and we look forward to next year being a banner year of park programs with no cost to the Township.
In order to create a timely, accurate and completely communicative information resource, the committee, under the talented project leadership of Becky Barlow and her team, has created this website in an approved process with the Township. With this website the committee is moving forward in connecting to the community in real time and beginning an ambitious and visionary production of programs of extreme value and in tune and partnership with the community and township, which it serves as a dedicated group of volunteers with community spirit and commitment.
Our committee is also a member of the Bucks County Recreation Council. Most counties in the USA have a similar organization in place, which work to coordinate efforts among the Park and Rec groups around the county and create learning tools to teach procedures and skills in Park and Rec planning. Our committee is outreaching beyond Bucks County and we even have potential partnering interest in New Jersey P&R Councils. The "No Child Left Inside" was such a program. The issue is about maximizing park use by identifying programs of extreme community value and connecting the information and availability of these programs through our website into a network so that we can all see what programs have value, who's the contact for the programs and possibly set up a revolving implementation of such programs around the county and even interstate.
At the last BCRC meeting held next to the race track on Street Road, chaired by Dan Sharapan, comments from Pa. Dept. of Conservation of Natural Resources (DCNR) Fran Rupert indicated that the state of Pa. was favoring "Multi Municipal" programs for the very limited funding available next year from Pa.. This makes it more critical to communicate outside our municipal borders to even be eligible for state funding at all. In fact, the BCRC is holding a DCNR workshop on January 26th at the Bucks County Conference and Visitors Center in Bensalem from 10AM to 12 to teach the process of Multi Municipal project implementation and granting. Interested Park & Rec people should go. Our committee will be represented there and this website will give a report of findings.
The will and psychology to survive the challenging financial squeeze potentially can be positive from a "think globally - act locally" perspective. Create functional relationships with people and communities around us to maximize the potential of expanding our learning and experience, then work together for implementation. Our committee has found this year that taking full responsibility for our programs has been fun and rewarding both to us as individuals and to the community. Next year we reach for the stars. Anybody that wants to be part of it - we're right here. Give us a call or email, or come to our 4th Tuesday meetings at Plumstead Township headquarters at 7:30 PM. We're all ears.
Chair Park and Rec Committee
Santa and Mrs Claus are coming to Plumstead on December 5th for the 10th annual Tree Lighting Ceremony at 5pm.
