Florence Township officials have encouraged children to participate in sports.
That message was delivered loud and clear when the Florence Township Council adopted an ordinance to eliminate participation fees for nearly all youth recreation sports.
At a May 15 council meeting, the governing body made a motion to adopt the ordinance and passed it to exclude the fees for all youth activities with the exception of the township’s tennis clinic program and its summer camp program.
Municipal officials said that these two programs have small participation fees, which are used to offset payments to third-parties who are responsible for the tennis clinics as well as payments for the trips during the summer camp program.
Although fees will still be designated for several recreation programs in the township, the municipality’s ordinance stated that the cost for other activities posed as an obstacle to get more youth involved in other programs.
At a council meeting on May 1 when the an initial introduction and public hearing of the ordnance was held, Florence Township Mayor Craig Wilkie explained the history of the township’s recreation fees and well as the reasons for possible adoption of the ordinance.
“A fee was instituted a number of years ago for the participation in recreational
activities. At one time, depending on the program, it was $5 [per person]. At another time it was $15 and then it went to a flat fee of $10,” Wilkie said. “After the economy went bad, we started charging $25. We are bringing in about $17,000 with the $25 fee. If we took it back to $10, it wouldn’t be worth the efforts involved between the clerk’s office or the recreation department. We can make it much more efficient if we put it all online and not worry about the fee, but still require registration.”
According to the ordinance, municipal officials stated in the document that the process of collecting the monies for the fees can pose as a financial burden to some families, discouraging youths from participating in an activity or sport.
“[The township] currently collects fees for recreation department program participants, and fees can sometimes be a financial burden not easily overcome and can prevent some children from participating,” according the ordinance. “The elimination of some fees may be the impetus to promote more participation in our youth recreation programs, and certain fees are collected to offset administrative costs in processing registration forms and not as a funding mechanism for the actual program.”
Officials said that they determined with advancements in the handling of sports registrations and documentation, the cost of processing them is substantially reduced, and more time is required to collect and account for fees. Officials said they felt it is more advantageous to omit the collection of sports registration fees for most recreation department programs.
Mayor Wilkie further explained the reasoning for the ordinance at the May 15 meeting and felt that the aim of the ordinance eliminates extraneous efforts in accumulating the fee monies as well as its intention to encourage more youth in the area to get involved in its rec programs.
“At this point in time, the time and effort to collect [the money for fees] is not necessary,” Wilkie said. “Collecting the information is more important. By eliminating this, we can now do it all electronically, so that we can maintain our databases and make sure that children are all registered.
“This will help more people be able to participate because they will not have the fees,” Wilkie revealed.
Wilkie explained that the township’s rec programs have an annual participant engagement of anywhere between 600 to 700 youths. With the most recent fees formerly set at $25, a the mayor noted that although the fees brought in a lot of money, the efforts needed to account for the money became excessive.
“It’s a lot of efforts for what is not necessary,” he said.