Jonestown Borough continues baseball field talks, agrees to rent portable toilet

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Jonestown Borough Council discussed ongoing negotiations with Jonestown American Legion at the Sept. 2 meeting, ultimately deciding to rent a portable bathroom for the nearby ball fields as the two parties disagree on how to move forward.

Council president Daniel Shuman said the borough owns the park where the baseball field is located, and the legion has used the field for years without a council-approved motion outside of a one-time approval over a decade ago.

Shuman said the legion uses the baseball field for various programs, includes advertising on the outfield walls, and regularly rents the field for Future Stars Baseball tournaments. All of this was done without council action.

Council and the legion discussed the baseball programs at previous public meetings. In July, legion representative Lee Campbell said they used the field based on a 10-plus-year verbal agreement between the organizations and the borough. A legion representative was not present at the September meeting.

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Council members said at the meeting that they agreed to reimburse the legion for field maintenance and improvements the group paid for, but the financial information they received has additional line items the borough cannot cover — such as team uniforms and electricity for the concession stand, which is also on borough property.

“They put signs on the outfield wall for sponsorships, and they were collecting money from the sponsors,” Shuman said. “So they’re advertising on borough property and collecting money for the advertisement on the borough property, with no permission from the borough on record that they could do that.”

Editor’s note: After the October meeting, Shuman said the legion did have permission to post signs on the outfield.

Shuman said there should be a clear and publicly approved agreement to outline the borough’s maintenance responsibilities versus the legion’s.

“What we’re trying to do is work out something to make it equitable for the borough,” he said.

He added that the borough has been sending regular checks to the legion for years, and he wasn’t given a good explanation for it. He said they decided to stop sending the checks, causing much of the frustration.

“It was just something that previous administrations or councils just let go for some reason, and we stopped it because it is really illegal,” Shuman said. “We can’t just give money to an organization without something on record that’s saying we’re going to do that. We’re giving away our citizens’ money — money that really belongs to the taxpayers.”

With these ongoing disagreements between the two parties, Mayor Joe Quairoli said the legion removed the portable bathrooms they kept by the field. Several council members said they were concerned about young kids having to walk to the borough’s permanent bathrooms and instead choosing to relieve themselves behind the dugouts.

Council agreed that the borough could find cheap rental portable bathrooms to place near the baseball fields and will then look to ratify the purchase at the next meeting.

Shuman said the borough is looking to have legion representatives at an upcoming meeting to discuss the ongoing issues and ultimately reach an agreement for continued baseball field use and maintenance.

In other business, council:

• Voted to adopt Ordinance 2025-1. Solicitor Colleen Gallo said there were “very minor changes” regarding wording. Most adjustments were changing “leaves” to “leaf waste” and saying that residents cannot burn leaf waste.
• Voted to allow Lebanon Free Church to hold a worship night on Oct. 31 or Nov. 1 at the borough’s band stand. The congregation is looking to hold the event on whichever night isn’t trick-or-treat night.
• Allowed Jay Young to do field maintenance, and Madisyn Breiner and her father to clean cemetery headstones. They are donating their time.
• Heard this month’s cash flow report, which stated the borough is $35,550 in the positive year-to-date. August’s income was $1,000.56 lower than the same time last year, and expenses were about $17,000 higher, according to Shuman.

Jonestown Borough Council will have a planning workshop meeting on Sept. 22 at 6:30 p.m. and its next regular meeting on Oct. 7 at 6:30 p.m. All meetings will be at 295 S. Mill St.