After a long absence from the Polly Ann Trail Management Council (PATMC), Addison Township is still not sure if they will ever rejoin the council.
At the Addison Township Board of Trustees regular meeting Oct. 16, trail manager Amy Murray and PATMC chairman Geno Mallia tried to convince the township to rejoin the council, but were met by strong opposition from officials.
‘If I can find it in the Village of Leonard on a $200,000 budget, you should be able to find it in this township,? said Mallia, who’s also village council president of Leonard.
Addison Trustee John Sutphin stressed to Mallia that the township’s budget is so bad off they can’t even use money from their contingency to pay for anything.
‘We’re that close,? he said. ‘We just don’t have it.?
Addison voted to leave the trail council in August 2005 due to budget constraints and hasn’t been able to find room in their budget to rejoin since.
They were paying a little over $9,000 per year to help maintain the trail before eliminating the funding.
In a letter to the board from Murray, the manager stated if the township agrees to pay $8,305.27 in trail council dues for the entire 2005-06 fiscal year, then it can rejoin, but the trustees were still opposed to giving anymore money to the PATMC.
‘If we can’t afford to be in it, we can’t afford to be in it,? Trustee Christine Sypitkowski said. ‘There have been really painful budget cuts we’ve had to make too.?
Clerk Pauline Bennett suggested to Murray and Mallia the possibility of the township pursuing some type of in-kind service to fund their portion of the council dues.
Mallia couldn’t give any answers as to what the PATMC would allow, but said as long as Addison ‘comes to the table? to try and work it out, the council would be willing to listen to any ideas.
The board voted unanimously to send two representatives from Addison to the trail council’s next meeting (Oct. 18) to pursue the idea of in-kind services.