After Evesham officials recently conducted an in-depth examination of the seasonal recreation programs offered through the township, registration for the township’s spring programs has officially opened with no significant changes from last year.
Several months ago, Mayor Randy Brown asked officials to look over the township’s seasonal offerings and determine if it was subsidizing any classes that lost money and to determine if any programs competed with local businesses.
With the 43 spring programs the township recently announced for children, adults and seniors, Evesham director of recreation and senior services Monica Vandenberg said neither scenario Brown presented was an issue. According to Vandenberg, the township will never run a program that might take the township into the negative.
Vandenberg said money from the programs usually brings in a small amount of revenue for the township, and those programs that don’t bring in revenue always break even.
To Brown’s other concern, Vandenberg said many of the programs offered by the township don’t compete with local businesses, as oftentimes there isn’t an equivalent program offered by a business in the town.
“Some classes like ‘Math Fun’ are not offered anywhere else,” Vandenberg said.
For those business that do offer similar activities, Vandenberg said the township’s offerings are taught at such a beginner level that the township’s programs act as more of a feeder system to local businesses as opposed to competition.
As an example, Vandenberg said karate classes offered by the township are actually taught by instructors from studios in Evesham, and there have been cases where the instructor would teach the class for free in the hope of eventually gaining a few more participants for their business.
“They ask us to act almost as a feeder program,” Vandenberg said. “It’s a starter, it’s considerably less money, and that instructor will come and teach it.”
Vandenberg also said the township monitors how many participants will repeat courses throughout the year. If the township finds there are residents who have enrolled in the same class repeatedly for five to six quarters, the township will inform those residents if there is a business in town that offers that class or program at a higher level.
“Sometimes, we’ve had the actual business come in and speak with that group,” Vandenberg said.
Vandenberg said the township also spends very little money to run the classes from an administration standpoint, as each quarter the township changes very few programs, and so the preparation runs nearly on autopilot.
“We’re not expelling any more monies on them because the time for the preparations and such — we’re looking at about one-and-a-half hours a week during that quarter,” Vandenberg said. “Everything is done in-house now and it’s the work between two clerks: one in the recreation department and one in the finance department.”
Those interested in signing up for Evesham’s latest round of programs can visit the Recreation and Senior Service page of evesham-nj.org.
Programs start as early as the first week of April.
