Motion fails to transfer Franklin fields

Four athletic fields currently used by the Franklin Township Athletic Association will remain under the ownership of Lehighton Area School District following Monday night’s school board meeting.

A motion to transfer ownership of the complex known as “Christman Field” to Franklin Township at no cost, with a right of reverter and pending a subdivision plan acceptable to the school district, failed by one vote.

Five Lehighton board members voted for the transfer intent, but an intermunicipal transfer requires a two-thirds vote of the board, which meant six affirmatives were necessary.

Voting in favor of the motion were Wayne Wentz, Larry Stern, Andrew Yenser, Rita Spinelli and Steve Holland, while David Bradley Sr., Joy Beers, Gail Maholick and Richard Beltz voted no.

Before Monday’s vote, Bradley said while he believes the kids of the athletic association need access to the fields, he could not support the district “giving them away” to Franklin.

“We would be compelling someone to pay a tax so that baseball can go forward and that is not ethical by any means,” Bradley said. “This transfer would be a win-win only for people in the community that support baseball, but not those suffering to lose their house over paying taxes. Also, if this district runs into a financial situation, and it looks like we could be, and the state comes in, we’ll lose those fields and that scares the living heck out of me.”

Bradley later went on to say the Franklin association is acting as a lobbyist and “mooching the fields for the benefit of the township.”

For several months, Bradley has encouraged the Franklin association leadership to consider buying the fields outright, through the help of community fundraisers, but on Monday, several FTAA officials said they just want to continue working with Franklin Township as they have done for over 30 years.

The township currently leases the four fields from Lehighton Area School District for $1 per year and, in turn, allows Franklin Township Athletic Association to use them.

Christman Field, however, is located on the same parcel of land as Franklin Elementary School, which the district is currently looking to sell.

“We evaluated the data and we don’t feel purchasing the property is our best option given the added liability cost and expenditures we would have to take on,” said Kevin O’Donnell, FTAA information officer. “We have some of the lowest registration fees in the area and that would change if we had to buy these fields.”

Franklin Township officials, O’Donnell said, have confirmed they are willing to keep working with the association, but did not want to move forward with a subdivision of the fields without the two-thirds affirmative vote from the district.

“We looked at the numbers,” O’Donnell said, “and the township paid $10,750 for electric, wages, grass cutting and insurance for the 2017 season. FTAA reimbursed them $3,000 for electric. It costs less than $4 per household in Franklin Township for Christman Field to operate the way it currently does.”

Beers, who voted down the transfer last month and again on Monday, said she “can’t ethically give away an asset that belongs to the school district.”

“If we were to continue to own the land and continue the relationship with FTAA, I would be in favor of that.”

The board also heard an impassioned plea from Linda Steigerwalt, the sister of Ronald Christman, who the field is named after. Christman died while serving in Vietnam in 1968.

“He was a Marine who loved baseball,” Linda said. “The kids need these fields. They play for the love of the game and learn so much more than playing ball. This field has touched and impacted countless lives over the years in many ways.”

See a video from the meeting at tnonline.com.