JACKSON – Changes are coming to Jackson’s recreation fees in 2018.
While conducting her annual review of the municipality’s recreation programs, Township Administrator Helene Schlegel said she realized that not all of the programs could be funded.
Schlegel brought the mater to the attention of the Township Council on Jan. 23.
“The cost of the program has to fund the program, so we did a review and there are some amendments we would like to make to the ordinance (regarding) recreation fees,” she said. “We have some activities that need to be removed that are no longer supported that we would like to take out.”
The programs to be removed are Arts & Crafts – Kindercraft and Me & Mom Jr. Crafts & Ceramics.
Jackson’s travel camp for teenagers is slated for changes.
“We started a new travel camp in 2017 for the older children to participate in and we did not know what to expect. It was a huge success, however, the fees that were originally put in did not cover the cost of the camp, so we want to adjust those fees to ensure they will cover the camp,” Schlegel told municipal officials.
She said an increase is also needed for youth basketball and wrestling. The reason for the increase in wrestling & basketball is that the programs must be self-supporting.
“With wrestling, when the children register we give everyone a singlet and they are supposed to return (the singlet). We have been having a problem getting the singlets back, so we want it to be that if (a participant) does not return the singlet, they will be charged the cost of the singlet,” she said.
Councilman Barry Calogero agreed with most of the points Schlegel made, with the exception of the travel camp.
“The registration is proposed to go from $25 to $75 and that is a 300 percent increase,” Calogero said.
Schlegel said the travel camp was new in 2017 and program administrators were trying to estimate how much it would cost to run the program.
“We started with a $25 fee thinking we were going to get a couple of kids. It was a huge success, but it did not cover everything it needed to cover,” she said.
Calogero sought to clarify that the fee that is charged to participants is not designed to make money for Jackson, but only to cover the cost of the program.
Schlegel said Calogero was correct and that “any money that comes in from a particular program needs to go to that program.”
“If we evaluate (a program) again at the end of 2018 and we see that we are making money, then we have the obligation to back (the cost) down,” Schlegel said.
The ordinance making the changes is expected to come before the council on Feb. 13.
