A recent scheduling issue at the Caernarvon Township (Berks) building marked a major topic of discussion during the April 8 board of supervisors meeting.
The Twin Valley Rotary Club and the police department both needed to use the township building for an art show and an officer training session, respectively. Art show affiliates had begun entering the building at the start of their allotted time period, but police training had not yet finished. As a result, officers, who had been in the middle of an exam, claimed to be disturbed by the moving of art exhibits and displays into the back of the testing area.
The issue had not been on the meeting’s agenda, but was brought to the attention of the board by supervisor and police liaison, Scott Moyer.
‘I’m just trying to make sense of [the scheduling conflict] here,’ said Moyer. ‘To alleviate this problem in the future, we have to determine what happened so that it doesn’t happen again.’
Finding the main cause of the problem proved to be difficult as a result of conflicting reports.
‘From my perspective, the police department had never reserved the building,’ said Township Administrator Randall Miller.
However, according to Police Chief Paul Stolz, the police department had requested the building after they had reached a date of confirmation for training. In most cases, tentative event dates are added to the township calendar even if they are not finalized. The police training period had allegedly not been listed prior to the date of the conflict.
Board members discussed which party should have taken priority on the township’s behalf. Most sided with the police department due to the fees officers had to pay to take the exams.
‘I would see the priority to be the police department,’ said board supervisor Allen Styer. ‘They didn’t pay [the township] for the room, but they were training the officers. Officers paid $200 a ticket to go to this class. The art show was only setting up, it wasn’t the day of their event. Couldn’t they have waited?’
Miller explained that representatives of both the police department and the rotary club were unable to make changes to their previously assigned time slots.
Some saw the conflict as a bad reflection on the board.
‘To be honest, as a supervisor it is embarrassing to me,’ said Moyer. ‘That’s what they think of us, all those officers from Pennsylvania and New York.’
After a lengthy discussion, the board agreed that measures would be taken to prevent similar issues in the future.
‘We can work on the scheduling,’ said Miller. ‘A conflict occurred… We just need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.’
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story contained the wrong meeting date and made an error in a township official’s title. This version has been corrected with the proper information.
