Jackson Township Councilman Ken Bressi and Township Council President Mike Kafton are charging Mayor Mike Reina with undermining planned improvements for a girls softball facility.

Reina called the charges politically motivated.

Jackson is gearing up for its nonpartisan municipal election in May, and the individuals who will be running for office will be filing nominating petitions within the next week. The position of mayor will be on the Election Day ballot.

At a council meeting on Feb. 23, the council held off on moving forward with the expenditure of $261,000 for comfort and concession facilities for girls softball at the Bartley Road fields.

Action on the matter may have been taken at the council’s March 9 meeting.

“In this difficult economic environment where residents are dealing with higher taxes, foreclosures, job layoffs and more, the mayor is asking the council to approve $261,000 for bathrooms and a concession stand,” Kafton said.

“I believe the mayor is insincere, at best, since he previously publicly stated that the costs for such a facility would be approximately $80,000. The quote that we just received is more than three times what he originally proposed,” he added.

Bressi, who ran with Reina in a special election in November 2009, and Kafton both claim Reina is deliberately sabotaging efforts to make improvements at the Bartley Road fields.

“I honestly don’t believe that anyone in the mayor’s office is watching out for the taxpayers,” Bressi said. “It is not that we don’t want the girls to have nice facilities, it’s a question of economic reality.”

Reina was not present at the Feb. 23 council meeting.

Kafton said that within the past year, some of the girls softball coaches came to the council seeking assistance in this matter because, they claimed, the mayor was ignoring them.

The governing body appointed Councilwoman Bobbie Rivere and Councilwoman Ann Updegrave to mediate the issue between the mayor and the softball representatives.

Kafton said Reina agreed to that intervention, but when it came time for the meetings, the mayor never notified Rivere or Updegrave, and he prohibited Rivere from entering a meeting when she learned that it was being held while she was in the building.

Kafton said Reina has not provided the council with information about the project in a timely manner.

According to information provided by the mayor’s office, there are currently 240 girls enrolled in (K-8) softball and the season runs from April through the first week in July.

“We are currently researching more economical ways to replace the [portable toilets] that are now on the [softball] premises without spending $261,000 of the taxpayers’ money,” Kafton said. “We believe that girls softball deserves better, while at the same time we need to demonstrate fiscal responsibility.”

Reina called the accusations leveled at him by Bressi and Kafton absurd and politically motivated and responded by explaining the plans for a comfort station at the softball fields.

“It will ensure the following,” said the mayor. “The young girls who will be the ones primarily using this ballpark will finally have safe, secure and healthy sanitary facilities instead of the portable toilets that they have been using for way too many years.”

Reina said the comfort station will be accessible to individuals with disabilities. Plans also call for what he described as a modest concession stand.

“The funding being used for the Bartley Road comfort station project is from a 2007 bond ordinance,” the mayor said. “This original bond covers the following: construction of recreation fields, renovation, improvement and development of municipal park facilities.”

Reina said this equates to $1.44 a year for 12 years for taxpayers, or a total of $17.28 for the life of the money bonded.

He said the council was provided with the information prior to the Feb. 23 meeting.

“It is no secret that I am a proponent of youth recreation, their safety and the quality of life for all of our children — boys and girls,” the mayor said. “We, as elected officials, owe it to our constituents to act equally and to be fair in doing so. I, like many other elected officials before me, have voted on recreational facilities for our children, so I see no reason why there has to be a challenge over providing our young ladies with a facility that is close or equal to what we have provided for other programs.”