In a letter to the editor in December, Cranberry Township Supervisor Bruce Mazzoni wrote he would give up his stipend if fellow Supervisor David Root gave up his, and then he reneged on his word. In the same article, he was condescending to a fellow CT resident.

Well, Mr. Root caught all of his fellow supervisors off guard when he led by example by signing paperwork in late December 2011 to relinquish his annual stipend of $4,125. Mr. Root then challenged his fellow board members to follow his lead and give up their annual stipend. No one did.

While Mr. Mazzoni continues to try to mitigate any public dissent over taxes by extolling the virtues of how great Cranberry Township is as compared to all the other municipal governments in PA, the CT BOS continues to be loose with taxpayer funds.

For example, in September 2000 the CT Board of Supervisors approved the staff’s recommendation for floating a 30-year bond for $9.5 million to construct the Cranberry Highland Golf Course and clubhouse.

Now why in the world do you think CT would need a golf course when there are a plethora of golf courses within a 20-mile radius and a golf course in which only 15 percent or so of CT resident golfers have enjoyed the derived benefits of?

And this fabulous golf course still carries an annual deft service of approximately $600K and its debts and expenditures year over year continue to exceed revenue, not to mention the enormous sums of money, which have been transferred over the years from the CT General Fund to prop up this “not revenue neutral” white elephant. 

While I love the game of golf and play several times per week, I have never played Cranberry Highlands as its green fees are not competitive with surrounding courses. But nonetheless my taxes are still subsidizing this venue while I derive no benefit, along with approximately 85 percent of the other CT resident golfers who do not play this course.

This extravagant, unnecessary expense is an intuitively and instinctively wrong use of taxpayer funds, and yes this golf course continues to yield a negative ROI since inception—not "an outstanding investment" in any stretch of any business imagination!

And yes Mr. Mazzoni, the citizens of Cranberry Township are still waiting for you (and the other three CT Board Supervisors) to follow Supervisor Root’s financial leadership by example by living up to your written word by relinquishing your annual stipends. 

The moniker, “Cranberry Township Built For You” must mean more than just hollow rhetoric as it currently feels more apropos to discern “Cranberry Township-Built For Taxing You.”

Earl Grubbs

Cranberry Township