Pool board member resigns (then doesn't)

Jun. 20—The joint committee that oversees the Lackawannock-Shenango-West Middlesex Community Pool may or may not be looking for a new member after an existing member may or may not have resigned.

The nine-member committee is comprised of three representatives each from Lackawannock and Shenango townships and West Middlesex — the three municipalities that own the community pool.

The pool is managed by the Mercer County Regional Council of Governments.

Shenango Township supervisor and committee vice president Dale Perry said that, during the committee's latest meeting Wednesday, he decided to resign from the committee.

Perry said he then changed his mind, but the committee accepted his "resignation" anyway.

However, West Middlesex Mayor Stacey Currie — who serves as the committee's president — said Perry announced his intent to resign from the committee, then changed his mind after the board vote had begun.

Both sides agree the resignation came amidst a disagreement over how to heat the pool — with solar power or a gas heater.

Perry, whose family owns God's Green Earth solar system installers, said he has many years of experience with solar power.

The steering committee was formed about a year ago to manage a collection of funds intended to improve the pool, and gradually oversee the entire pool's operations.

This collection of improvement funds includes $30,000 in money from the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, with $10,000 from each of the three municipalities, $20,000 from the Mercer County Economic Development Capital Reserve Fund, and a $75,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.

These funds are currently earmarked for a series of smaller, lower-cost improvements and a gas heater that would help regulate the pool's water at around 82 to 84 degrees.

Since the gas heater's cost came to an estimated $30,000, Currie previously told the Herald that the project depended on securing a grant from DCNR.

Perry said he argued in favor of solar heating and a building extension to provide shelter, and thought a gas heater would be cost-prohibitive in the long-term.

"It's just sad, very sad," Perry said of the board's vote Wednesday.

Currie, however, said Perry was absent for several meetings prior to Wednesday, and was not fully informed on the situation.

Currie added the committee had already decided to move forward with a gas heater about a month ago, and that West Middlesex Council voted to award a bid for the gas heater project at the borough's meeting Tuesday.

West Middlesex council awarded the bid due to the borough's status as deed holder for the community pool.

"We weren't inclined to go with solar because it was going to be too expensive and too big a project," Currie said.

Perry said he plans to continue serving on the committee, and that he wants to "make peace" with the committee members.

His main priority in serving on the committee is to ensure the community pool remains open for the families who depend on it each summer, Perry said.

"I don't care what I have to do to make sure the pool stays open," Perry said.

Currie said that, since the board already accepted Perry's resignation, committee member and Lackawannock representative Terry Whalen would draft a letter for Shenango Township supervisors to appoint a new representative.

"Hold on," Tom Hubert, chairman of Shenango Township supervisors said in a Thursday phone interview. "They can't do that."

The committee doesn't have the authority to accept Perry's resignation or remove him from that post, Hubert said.

"He has to resign to the supervisors or to me as president of the board to have him replaced because we're the ones who appointed him to the committee," Hubert said. "The committee has no authority to tell the supervisors who is going to represent us."

The committee's next meeting is July 1. Currie said she hopes anyone interested in serving on the committee is looking toward the communities' future and finding ways to improve their hometowns.

"Our group is very varied. We have people in their 30s and their 80s, parents, grandparents, housewives, construction people — it's a very good group of people," Currie said.

Currie also credited COG Recreation Director Brian Foster, who advises the committee, for keeping the committee's members informed on the pool's operations.

"We're a year in and the committee's done an amazing job, and Brian has really brought everyone up to speed and held our hands through the growing pains," Currie said.

This is the second row in recent weeks involving Perry's views and involvement with solar panels.

During Shenango Township supervisors' most recent meeting on June 11, Perry asked that the township reimburse his $300 in expenses for a trip he took to New Jersey to look into solar panels for the pool. The Herald reviewed a video of the meeting posted on the township's Facebook site.

At the time, Perry was attending a meeting of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors in Hershey. Perry's attendance and reimbursement for that event had been approved by supervisors at a prior monthly meeting.

Perry said his expenses covered an additional overnight stay at a hotel and driving mileage from Hershey to New Jersey.

But the request triggered an argument between Hubert and Perry. Hubert told Perry he never approached supervisors about the New Jersey trip or sought advance approval for its expenses.

"We didn't know about the New Jersey part of it," Hubert told Perry. "You brought it in after the fact."

Without prior approval from the township supervisors, Shenango Township can't reimburse Perry for those expenses, Hubert said.

But Perry responded the extra trip was, "...on behalf of Shenango Township to help save Shenango Township money by getting that pool to pay its own way instead of having to be subsidized $15,000 a year."

Perry made a motion that his expenses be authorized. The motion died for lack of a second.

Shenango Township's next regular supervisors' meeting is July 9.