Limerick Board Discusses Limerick Community Day, Parks and Recreation Department Needs

Limerick Township Parks and Recreation director Karen Hegedus said at Tuesday night's Board of Supervisors meeting that there is a possibility of this Saturday's being cancelled and/or rescheduled.

The potential for rainy weather most of this week is expected to impact the event. Hegedus said that a decision will be made on Thursday or Friday on whether or not the event will be held.

In another informational session prior to beginning work on the 2012 township budget, Hegedus and township manager Dan Kerr also discussed some of the department's plans and needs for next year.

At the top of the department's list is remodeling to help take some of the demand for sports fields off of .

Township engineer Khaled Hassan showed the board two options, both of which would involve the creation of two new lacrosse fields and at least three soccer fields at the park. The two softball fields would be kept up if the board chooses to do so.

The first option, which would require more grading, offers two north-south oriented lacrosse fields in the eastern section of the park and three soccer fields in the southwestern section.

The second option, which Hassan said he would recommend, offers two east-west oriented lacrosse fields and five soccer fields, two in the northeastern corner of the park and three in the southwest section.

The plan also calls for new bathrooms to be built and for an older storage unit and the current bathrooms to be torn down.

Limerick Community Park currently has one baseball, three softball, two Little League and four multi-use fields.

Due to the heavy use of Limerick Community Park's fields, some of the fields need to be shut down and completely regraded, with new topsoil and turf put down. This regrading project would potentially close the fields for six months.

Kerr said the idea of remodeling Linfield Sports Park will give the township the option to relocate some of the teams that use the Limerick fields.

Tom Schadt, president of the Linfield Amateur Softball Association Men's Slo-Pitch organization, told the board that his organization needs at least two fields to operate with its 11 teams.

"I would just like you to be aware, in considering the fields, that no field other than the baseball field is big enough for adult men's softball, and we need the fields at Linfield," Schadt said.

Supervisor Joseph St. Pedro also expressed his concern that the number of organized sports events at Limerick Community Park are keeping other residents from using the park.

"People who aren't in organized sports, there's no parking room [for them to come use the park facilities]," St. Pedro said.

Several board members suggested that as part of the budget development process, the Parks and Recreation Department look at the fees they are charging for non-residents to use township facilities.

Hegedus said that the fields are booked by resident organizations more often than not, but that the pavilions are popular with non-residents.

Kerr and Hegedus also explained that the fully-volunteer Parks and Recreation Committee had expressed an interest in working on larger projects in the future instead of participating in the day-to-day work of running the park system.

The committee, led by chairperson Patti Kaufman, would like to focus more on planning, organizing a larger volunteer base for events, finding some open space to have a community garden where residents could rent a plot to grow fruits and vegetables, and developing grants for the Parks and Recreation Department.

Kerr also said that staffing will be a budget matter this year.

Hegedus is the only full-time employee of the Parks and Recreation Department. Angela Russell, the camp director, works part-time for the township, and everything else is done by other township staff and the volunteers.

The camps have become so popular, Kerr said, that there may be a necessary increase in staffing.

"We've seen $100,000 in income just from the camps," Kerr said.

The Parks Department and the committee are also hoping to begin work on a Master Trail Plan for the community.

"We'd like to connect the Perkiomen Trail and the Schuylkill Trail," Supervisor Thomas Neafcy said.