The Eldred Township supervisors got an earful last week when one resident questioned where the money goes that is raised by the Kunkletown Thrift Store.

The thrift store operates out of the Eldred Township Community Center, which is owned by the township and leased to the store. The building also houses the West End Food Pantry.

Doug Borger, whose sister, Donna Deihl, is the manager of the thrift store, began by asking why the amount brought in by the store each month isn’t on the treasurer’s report.

Scott Clark, chairman of the supervisors, said he knows the report just shows the balance, and Supervisor Susan McGinty added that it used to be in the monthly report a long time ago. She said it is something they can work on for another meeting.

Borger said he understood, but “that thrift store is going to bring in $200,000 this year, so just where does the money go?”

He mentioned a need for playground equipment.

McGinty said she has gone over the budget line item by line item with him.

Borger replied, “If we’re spending $200,000 just to upkeep that building, I think we have to seriously rethink this.”

McGinty said the income is not used for only the ETCC building.

“Some of the money is used for the property, but nobody has ever guaranteed that 100% of what comes in will be spent on that property alone,” McGinty said. “But it is documented on the financial reports and we’ll work on having a breakdown for the next meeting.”

Borger pressed on and said, “I mean we talked about — how many years now — about like the playground area. Everybody here knows it gets used a lot.”

Borger was referring to the playground beside the ETCC building.

McGinty said the supervisors approved to have Woodland Design work on a proposal for the park a couple months ago.

“There again, I think that’s a BS deal,” Borger said. “I mean, my sister and I designed the whole thing.”

On July 25, 2022, Borger and Deihl presented their ideas to the supervisors with drawings during a regular meeting.

Borger pointed out that Clark and the Parks and Recreation Committee were involved in that planning. He thinks the township is wasting money by going to a professional designer, and they wasted his and his sister’s time.

“It wasn’t a waste of time, Doug,” Clark said. “The comments and work that we all put into that was relayed to Woodland Design. So they are incorporating some of that information into what they’re presenting to us.”

Clark said the township needs the professional design for applying for grants.

“Hopefully the grants can cover a lot of the funding for that, and it’s not going to have to come out of our general fund, where we struggle, you know day-to-day anyway,” Clark said.

Borger asked if the township would be hurting financially if it wasn’t for the thrift store.

“Listen, the thrift store provides income that does get put into the general fund,” Clark said. “I’m sure that it would cause the township to have to look at some different options.”