Coaldale has $2,500 to spend on its parks in 2015, but the mayor and a member of the parks board disagree about how to use it.

The issue was brought up at Tuesday's council meeting after Mayor Joel Johnson asked council to vote to buy benches for a ball field and basketball court located in the Seek section of the borough.Johnson said that the facilities are used by a youth organization, and they should have something to sit on.But Angela Krapf, who leads the borough's recreation board, said the board has been holding onto that money in hopes of buying playground equipment for the borough's Miners Park at the end of the year.Krapf said that Johnson should have brought his request to the recreation board first before taking it to the full council."I'm not denying they're not nice, I'm saying I'm kid-oriented and the kids aren't getting anything from these benches," she said.Krapf said the borough only has one small piece of playground equipment for small children to play on. While there is little in the borough coffers for recreation, she said that it may be enough to purchase equipment at discount when suppliers put their 2015 stock on sale at the end of the year.Furthermore, Krapf would like to see the equipment go in the Miners park, because there is a greater concentration of residents that live within walking distance."I live in Seek. I would love to have a playground down there," she said. "My thought process was always to focus on the one up here first, because this is where the majority of the children are."