Tonight’s Borough Council meeting got a little whacky courtesy of Councilman Bob Stokley (R).  During the meeting the Conshohocken Bear’s Cheerleaders and the local CYO spoke before council regarding fees charged for their use of the Fellowship House.  The crutch of the issue was that the cheerleading organization knew that they would be charged $1,700 for 2012, but did not budget for it because of a promise made by Bob Stokley to take care of it. So the cheerleaders received invoices and ignored them based on Stokely’s promise.

So tonight a board member from the Golden Bears had to get up and plead for it to be resolved, because Stokley didn’t come through.  It wasn’t clear whether Stokely promised to pay for it himself or that he would get the Borough to pay for it.  At the meeting, the request was that the Borough pay for it.

So Stokley goes on this rant about how the programs are successful and keep the kids “off the streets” (those mean streets of Conshy).  He really upped the crazy with two or three references on how the Fellowship House had a “bounty” on the cheerleaders.  The reasoning for this was because there is an unpaid balance, the Fellowship House is now requiring upfront payment on current use.  He also started harping on the fact that the Fellowship House does not provide any free programming and how it should because it receives funding from the Borough. It just looked sad how he was pushing blame on the Fellowship House.  He then said that he would pay the $100 upfront fees until the issue was resolved (these $100 payments wouldn’t be applied to the outstanding $1,700).

So eventually Angela Hendrick, the head of the board of the Fellowship House, and Darlene Hildebrand, executive director of the Fellowship House, got up to speak and explain how both organizations receive a discounted price and were aware of the charges that would be due.  They also had called around to other similar facilities and all charged a fee to similar organizations.

At this point it broke down to bickering between Stokley and the representatives of the Fellowship House, while other council members sat somewhat stone faced and looking embarrassed.  Eventually Council President Paul McConnell broke into the conversation and brought the bickering to a close.

So the council meeting than continues onto other topics and eventually comes to a point where the council members voted to release money kept in escrow in regards to O’Neill Properties’ development of The Londonbury.  The money was released and then Stokley holds up his phone and states that Brian O’Neill just texted him and that he would pay the $1,700.

Now I do not think releasing the escrow money had anything to do with the $1,700, but it looked horrible.  I guess it was nice for Stokley to get someone else to make good on his promise.

Please note that this story has nothing to do with the worthiness of any of the organizations mentioned.  If you would like to support the cheerleaders or CYO, click their names to contact them.