Many groups use the building's meeting rooms, said Mike Diehl, the township's parks and recreation director. For example, among the groups using a meeting room Tuesday night were homeowners associations and a rubber stamp club.
'It's a very busy time of year now,' Diehl said.
In Cranberry, like many other communities in the North Hills, residency and profit status are the litmus tests when municipal officials consider whether to charge for room use.
Policies and practices covering use of community rooms in municipal buildings have come into question because of a recent court case started by Michael Juzwick of Dormont.
Last year, Juzwick asked to use a community room in the Dormont Borough Building for an event in conjunction with Constitution Week. Borough officials initially waived the rental fee for the room but later billed him for $2,100 after learning that his display included pamphlets on prayer in school, placards about the Christian faiths of early Americans and his books on the Christian world view and constitutional government.
Juzwick said paying the fee would violate his First and 14th Amendment rights to free speech and freedom of religion. Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Cindrich granted a restraining order allowing him to use the room rent-free for this year's Constitution Week, which started Monday.
'A policy that permits unbridled discretion by the government opens the way to arbitrary suppression of a particular point of view,' the judge said.
Diehl said nonresident and for-profit groups are required to pay to use community rooms in Cranberry's municipal building. The township does not rent rooms to groups that will use the rooms as a regular place of worship.
'That would clearly be a conflict of the separation of church and state,' he said.
But, he said a religious group could rent a room for a one-time program or a fund raiser as long as the township wouldn't be promoting it.
Cranberry charges can vary from free to $120 per hour for the senior/teen center.
Among groups using the Cranberry municipal building are the Cranberry Area Chamber of Commerce, various community athletic organizations and Geneva College, which hosts a few classes in the building.
In Richland Township, Manager Dean Bastianini said the rate is usually $10 per hour for nontaxpayer funded groups.
'There's usually not a charge for anything that's taxpayer supported,' Bastianini said.
Township officials like to keep the room under its 40-person capacity and do not rent it out to private individuals.
'Civic organizations use it. Sometimes the Girl Scouts will use it. State representatives and senators wanting town meetings use it,' Bastianini said. 'Both the Republican and Democratic parties meet here in the assembly room.'
Shaler Township allows civic groups to use the meeting room in the municipal building at no charge. Shaler EMS, garden clubs, toastmasters and other groups have used the room.
'Pretty much any civic group or organization can use it on a first-come, first-serve basis,' said Deb Vita, Shaler Township's assistant manager.
Shaler has not had any controversy over the use of the room, Vita said.
Civic groups are allowed to use the meeting room at the Ross Township Municipal Building free of charge, said Tom Lavorini, Ross manager.
Ross officials are debating a plan to charge groups for use of the room at the municipal building under construction in Ross Community Park on Evergreen Road, Lavorini said. Lavorini said he was not aware of any problems regarding the use of the room.
In McCandless, town officials decide on a case-by-case basis as to who uses the town hall for meetings.
Regis Ebner Jr., assistant town manager, said local politicians have used the building for community meetings and that the McCandless Democrat and Republican committee members use the building for their respective monthly meetings.
Ebner said there is no charge for using the town hall, although town officials typically ask groups to coordinate their meetings with municipal meetings so a town official will be on hand to lock up at the end of the evening.
In Franklin Park, borough officials permit borough residents or groups to use the municipal building free of charge for a 'public purpose.' They do not rent the building out but limit its use to groups such as homeowners' associations, local politicians having a community forum or community groups holding a meeting, said Ambrose Rocca, borough manager.
Rocca said borough officials do not permit religious groups to meet in the borough building, but all groups are able to rent the borough's activity center in Blueberry Hill Park.
Rental fees for the activity center are based on whether the building is being rented by a resident or nonresident of the borough, Rocca said.
Some municipalities do not allow groups to use rooms in their buildings.
A Marshall Township official said they do not rent rooms in the municipal building to groups. In Pine Township, officials said they do not have the staff to rent rooms.
'We don't (rent rooms). The reason being we don't have staff at night and, during the day, we have too many meetings here,' said Jane Silvester, administrative secretary for the township.
'Once you open it to one group, you have to open it to everybody, and it wouldn't be feasible for us,' she said. 'Possibly the community room at the high school will be the answer.'
Plans call for the Pine-Richland High School Stadium to have a 'spirit' room, which is expected to be open to the community for different uses.
Dominick DiRienzo can be reached at ddirienzo@tribweb.com or (724) 779-7124. Staff writers Elizabeth Barczak, Mark Berton and Ashley Gerwig contributed to this report.
