The Recreation Department is running into budget trouble.
Department head Jack Ahearn and assistant Missy Orosz appeared before the Board of Finance earlier this month to request a transfer of $19,960 to help fund the recreation programs through the rest of the year.
The department ran out of funds because of an explosion of interest in available programs and, perhaps, some ill-advised summer hires.
“There is a demand and we need to hire help for programs. I can’t do every program myself,” Orosz said.
Ahearn said those programs include an indoor tennis program that went “bonkers” in terms of participants and the largest set of basketball teams they have ever seen. Ahearn also said as many as six of the summer hires they probably could have done without.
Board of Finance member Bill Paecht called for better planning on the part of the recreation department. He fully endorsed the increased use of the community center, but demanded a tighter degree of fiscal responsibility.
“I want to see more and more going on down there. We have to utilize that building but we have to utilize it through the budget process,” Paecht said.
The recreation department programs include a set of excursions to places like Broadway and Yankee’s games.
Typically Ahearn uses funds from an account to purchase the tickets in advance and then collects money from the attendees to repay the account. That process has worked well in the past, but the lack of money to the department as a whole is draining the source.
Ahearn estimated enough left for one more Broadway trip.
Orosz said the department has taken in $10,000 in participation fees that the recreation department is not allowed to keep. Those funds according to Orosz go into the general fund.
“In my 15 years this is my first time before this board for a transfer,” Ahearn said.
The request did not come as a surprise to the board. Paecht noted they had seen the spending going over for at least three months.
There was a question on the hiring practices of the recreation department and whether they were handled by the department itself or through the First Selectman’s office.
First Selectman Paul Roy said he did not believe the recreation department hires are filtered through his office.
Despite board complaints on the handling of the excursion account and the lack of planning, the request was approved with the abstention of Chairman Mark Thompson. His son was one of the summer hires and may be again.
Roy said the recreation commission needs to be involved in future planning. They can’t spend money they do not have budgeted.
“We did not have a clue at the time that some of the programs I started would take off. Yeah, we didn’t plan for it,” Orosz said.
