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It was an evening of meetings, meetings and still more meetings on May 21st, all overshadowed by the looming threat of budget cuts and downsized aspirations, with a few highlights, as the Blue Ridge School Board winds down the school year and looks toward the new fiscal year to begin in July.

Harold Empett kicked it off with a gathering of his Facilities & Grounds Committee. Summer projects on the campus this year are minor compared to prior years. The committee was expecting to hear from Board member and Hallstead Borough representative Cindy Gillespie about a new agreement on the ballfield in that town, but Ms. Gillespie could not attend. Blue Ridge has shouldered the responsibility for maintaining the field during the entire season for many years, even though its teams use it only for a short while in the Spring. Now, because of the tight budget, the school district wants to shave expenses and limit its obligations only to the time it uses the fields. Mr. Empett said that the Borough was told by the local Little League association that the latter would assume responsibility. So Mr. Empett wants to get the district, the borough and the Little League together to hash out an agreement. The district would like to move all of its softball activities back to the campus, but some renovations would be necessary to bring the facilities up to PIAA standards. And the district wants to ensure that the Hallstead fields would be maintained in accordance with those standards as well, as long as the district continues to use them.

No! Really? Commissioners Allen Hall, Michael Giangrieco, and Mary Ann Warren “talked trout” at the ten-minute Wednesday morning, May 23 meeting. Meeting attendees were almost as astounded as the incredulous Commissioner Giangrieco, who initiated the “trout talk” with his query.

Commissioner Giangrieco’s interrogative may have been the most entertaining response to an agenda item, but commissioners had other items of weightier substance to consider during their gathering. “Consider” may overstate the commissioners’ deliberative process on most matters however. In actual practice, motion approval - without commissioner question or comment - carried the day.

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