South Strabane rolls out political drama

A discussion about a November children’s event turned political Tuesday night when South Strabane Township supervisors unanimously refused to approve a two-hour free skate night for young township residents because it was advertised on the Facebook page of a candidate running for township supervisor.
The event was initiated by the township’s parks and recreation council, of which Daryl Price is chairman.
Price, who is one of the Republican candidates running for one of two seats on the South Strabane Board of Supervisors, created an invitation to the event on Facebook, using one of his personal accounts that has multiple campaign banners on it.
“All I was doing was promoting it to the residents,” Price said Wednesday. “I’m the chairman of the parks and recreation council. I should be able to let people know that the parks and rec are having an event.”
Price said he created the online invitation through his own page because another member of the parks and recreation council could not remember the password for the council’s official Facebook page, where they typically would advertise the event.
When he created the Facebook event on his own page, Facebook listed Price as “host” of the event, making it appear to many residents and the supervisors as if Price was advertising the roller-skating night as his own campaign event.
Supervisor Jack Keisling raised ethical concerns about the advertisement, calling the event “politically charged.” But Price said Wednesday his Facebook post was not public and only shared with his friends.
“It was just to my friends, and they knew it wasn’t a campaign event, but a parks and recreation event,” he said.
It’s not the first time the supervisors have run into “ethical concerns” with the parks and recreation council – Price in particular. Last month the supervisors voted to eliminate the seven-member council following a conflict with Price.
Price had included his name multiple times in a May newsletter from the council that was distributed the day of the primary election, after he was asked not to do that so close to the election. Supervisors asked him to reimburse the township for $2,209, the cost of printing and mailing the newsletter.
Brandon Stanick, township manager, said the parks council operates under a $30,000 annual budget provided by the supervisors. He said each year, the council puts together a list of events that get approved in January, but that any tentative dates on the list still need to be approved by the supervisors once they’ve been determined.
On Tuesday, Peggy Steggles, a member of the parks and recreation council, addressed the supervisors, saying that the council had planned to host the annual skating event in September, but the newly opened Wired Skating and Pizza, on McCoy Lane, had not yet opened. She said that when they brought the event before the board for approval, the date of the event was still pending the venue’s opening, which didn’t happen until the second week of August.
Supervisor Bob Weber expressed concerns that the council was advertising the event before officially getting the date approved by the supervisors.
Supervisor Thomas Moore said his concerns with the event had to do with one of the council members not updating his clearances to work with children. He said the council members were asked in July to update their clearances by September, but one of them – not Price – still has not provided the appropriate documentation.
Price, however, insists that the decision to reject the skating event was politically motivated, saying Keisling and board member Ed Mazur were “bitter” about losing to him in the primary election.
“They’re just bitter and disappointed that they’ve done such a bad job, and they want to blame other people,” Price said.
Price said that since the board did not approve the free skate night, he will be hosting one himself Nov. 5 at Wired.
“I’m going to pay for it because I don’t want to disappoint people who have put it in their schedules,” he said. “It’s going to be my event now because the board of supervisors wants to be petty.”
Price said he won’t consider it a campaign event because “it’s for the kids.”
“We’re in a time when this community needs to come together, because we have an opiate problem and a lot of single-parent families, and we need things like this for the kids,” he said. “It needs to stop being made political.”
The parks and recreation council also asked the supervisors to approve another skate night for children sometime between Dec. 28 and Jan. 1, but the board decided to table the motion until after the election.