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Recreation Department Garners Praise For Cost-Saving Measures
By Catherine Snipe
The township recreation department is increasing customer service while lowering its budget, and the township council is impressed.
The township recreation department Head Andrea Zapcic presented her budget last week, reporting that measures such as "flextime" for employees and lowered need for paper will help save the township money.
Another cost-saving measure relates to lifeguards. The department created a system to better encourage last year's lifeguards to return the following summer. This saves the department money that would have been spent training new lifeguards. In addition, junior lifeguards act as apprentices and learn the qualifications on the job. When they are old enough, they can apply to become part of the lifeguard staff. This is further realized savings, Zapcic said.
The beach's staff and budget is often hard to pinpoint, she said, because it can be so greatly affected by the weather and household economics. The number of patrons can vary wildly, Zapcic told the council.
About 46 lifeguards are needed at all times. The lifeguards and beach badge checkers make up about 93 percent of the recreation department's salary budget. Those salaries are increasing by $18,000 under Zapcic's budget proposal, but she said savings are being found in several facets of the department.
For one, the beach staff will be doing in-house repairs to rope lines that cordon off swimming areas. Previously, the department used outside vendors to repair the ropes.
The department switched its brochures from twice annually to an annual publication. That saved in printing costs and distribution, she said. More information is available online, too, which should save time and money.
The brochure changes are part of a twophase process to improve information systems in the department. A new computerized register better organizes information and emailing mechanism will also allow for greater efficiency, Zapcic added.
In addition, the recreation office added cash registers for greater accountability, Zapcic said.
Councilwoman Ruthanne Scaturro and other council members applauded the department's initiatives, pointing to a wide number of programs looked at regularly to spot inefficiencies.
"You are doing a fine job to manage the department," Scaturro said.
Council President Stephen Acropolis joked to Zapcic, "Can you come back and do all the department budgets?"
The department's programs span organized sports to specialized classes for residents pre-kindergarten through senior citizen.
In organized sports, recreation serves more than 600 children on 65 teams, Acropolis said.
In the weeks running up to this year's township budget, department heads have been making budget presentations during township council meetings. In previous weeks, the police, public works, township clerk and purchasing departments all presented their budget proposals.
The township council emphasized the need for greater efficiency and asked for insight on budgets that sought increases over last year.
Next week, the township administrator will present his budget, as will the court and tax collector.
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