Englishtown unable to pay for summer camp waivers
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer
MANALAPAN — Englishtown Mayor Thomas Reynolds told Manalapan officials on April 9 that his town will not be able to pay for youngsters from his community who attend the Manalapa summer recreation program but are unable to pay the $500 registration fee.
In previous years the Manalapan recreation program has been picking up the fee for children from Manalapan and Englishtown who were unable to pay to attend the summer day camp. Manalapan officials have said the township can no longer afford to do that and were asking Englishtown officials to pay for children from that community who could not afford the registration fee.
Reynolds said that after discussing the situation with the members of the Englishtown Borough Council it was decided that the budget would not be able to provide any money to pay for Englishtown youngsters to attend theManalapan summer recreation program at no cost to their family.
Reynolds acknowledged that Manalapan historically had been picking up the cost for Englishtown youngsters who had been attending Manalapan’s summer recreation program on an economic waiver.
“We thank you very much for doing that,” the mayor said, before noting it was the consensus of the Borough Council that given the current economic climate there would be no way for Englishtown’s 2008 budget to provide for the cost of the waivers.
“Based on the loss of our state aid, we are looking at a significant increase in our taxes and we will not be able to pay the waivers for the coming summer,” he said.
According to Manalapan officials, of the 80 children who attended the 2007 summer recreation program on an economic waiver, 17 youngsters were residents of Englishtown.At $500 each, the 17 youngsters from Englishtown would cost $8,500 in registration fees.
Manalapan officials decided last fall that the recreation program would no longer pick up the cost of economic waivers for children from Englishtown who cannot pay the $500 registration fee.

