West Hills public hearing spotlights recreation commission formation hurdles
Nov. 30—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — Opportunities and challenges lay before a nascent regional recreation authority in the West Hills.
Improving recreational programs in the area would depend on sustained cooperation by at least three taxing authorities in the West Hills area — Westmont Borough, Upper Yoder Township and the Westmont Hilltop School District.
A committee of public officials and residents from each of those three agencies has begun forming a plan for a recreation commission with help of a state grant and recreation consultant, Jim Watenpool.
More than 30 people attended a public hearing Tuesday at the Westmont Hilltop Elementary School on Diamond Boulevard to give input to Watenpool as he writes his final feasibility plan regarding a new recreation authority. Watenpool said his final document may be ready for approval by participating taxing authorities in January.
Southmont Borough council, a fourth taxing body in the West Hills, has so far chosen not to participate in the feasibility study, but school board President Rob Gleason said another invitation to Southmont will be extended after a plan is formed.
"They will want to be part of it after they see it," he said.
The feeling of many people at the hearing was that greater public investment in recreation was worthwhile.
Parents of children in sports leagues said there's demand for an indoor sports facility in the West Hills.
"If you build it, they will come," said Camille Miller, of Westmont, who has traveled with her children for their league play.
Matt Varga, a father of a second-grader in the Westmont Hilltop School District, said investing in a sports facility would generate operational income that would sustain it.
"Right now, families are spending their money at other venues outside of the area," he said.
Renovating the Westmont Grove on Edgehill Drive or constructing a new recreation facility — possibly at the former Westmont Hilltop elementary school site on Goucher Street — are expensive projects that wouldn't be immediately undertaken by a newly established recreation commission, Watenpool said.
However, Watenpool said online surveys showed a high level of public interest in an indoor facility and swimming pool.
"Low-hanging fruit" that the executive director of a regional recreation commission would take on first, he said, includes trails, outdoor educational programming and dog parks.
Jim Hargreaves, former Westmont Hilltop School Board president for 12 years, said the state of the Westmont Grove recreation center "is an embarrassment." He sees a need for a recreation commission to renovate it, but he said there must be buy-in from other municipalities.
Westmont Borough citizen and former school board member Terri Schenfeld agreed. She said it would be necessary to have buy-in from municipalities including Ferndale Borough, and the school district should reserve its tax funding for education.
Schenfeld pointed out that Ferndale has a school in Westmont Hilltop School District. If a recreation commission builds new facilities in the West Hills, then Ferndale children would use them, she said.
Watenpool said he will use input from the hearing to form a document for approval by taxing bodies interested in forming the recreation commission. By June, he said, the commission could have an executive director.
