Sentences Never Heard in the LGI

“You acted alone...You have no authority to do anything on your own."
“This puts us in a bad light with the...community,”
“We’re a team, and we all have to be on the same page


Panel removes provision for 30 advertising signs
The district goes to the Warminster zoning board today to have advertising signs for the high school baseball field removed from its application.
By MANASEE WAGH

Centennial school board’s finance committee unanimously voted to remove a provision the board president had added to a zoning board application without the board’s knowledge.

The original application to the Warminster board was for a new Coca-Cola scoreboard at Claude Lodge Field behind William Tennent High School.

Board President Michael Monaghan added a request for 30 advertising signs on the high school’s baseball field as well, but he didn’t inform the board of his intentions.

“We needed cheaper advertising than what’s to be available on the Coca-Cola sign,” Monaghan said Monday night at a board finance committee meeting.

The cost for each of the six advertising slots available on the football sign is $5,000. Presumably, it would be cheaper to advertise on the baseball diamond, said Monaghan. However, the price for an advertisement has not been determined.

Monaghan said he was also worried about incurring an additional zoning application fee for a separate advertising request for the baseball field. He said that former district Superintendent Michael Masko had encouraged combining both requests to facilitate the matter. So Monaghan instructed Victor Lasher, director of facilities, to add the 30 signs to the application.

The superintendent is responsible to the nine school directors. As such, both Masko and Monaghan should have notified the board immediately, said other board members.

“I appreciate you were trying to save the district money,” board member Thomas Reinboth said Monday. “His heart was in the right place, but maybe he should have informed the board.”

Some board members learned about the zoning board addition from other sources in the community and brought up the issue in mid-July at the board’s operations committee meeting.

Board member Jane Lynch was bewildered and upset when she discovered the additional request only through the zoning board, of which Lynch is also a member.

“The [football stadium] scoreboards are our top priority. The baseball signs came from nowhere. It’s embarrassing,” she said.

The baseball diamond was never part of the stadium complex.

Board member Cynthia Mueller also expressed her consternation.

“You acted alone,” she told Monaghan. “I was very taken aback and extremely disappointed. You have no authority to do anything on your own.

“This puts us in a bad light with the Warminster community,” she added. The matter at least should have been introduced before a committee of the school board for discussion before taking it to the zoning board, she said.

Board member Betty Huf encouraged the entire board to learn from the mistake and move forward together.

“We’re a team, and we all have to be on the same page,” she said.

Today, Lasher will request that the zoning hearing board remove the Tennent baseball field signs request from Centennial’s application.

Now that the board is aware that Monaghan was looking to raise funds for the district through less expensive signs on the baseball field, the issue might be revisited in the future, said Mueller.