Farrell Recreation Commission has decided to focus on improving playgrounds for the next year.

The move, announced Thursday, means it will not honor outside requests for funds. That means it will not pay for athletic league registration fees and insurance or supplies for arts and crafts programs or make donations to festivals.

The commission will work with the city, Sharon/Farrell Weed and Seed and Mercer County Regional Council of Governments to develop a plan for sprucing up the Emerson Avenue playground area.

Farrell Councilman Louis Falconi said he did not believe the commission could both give away money and improve playgrounds.

"I think we should get out of this allotting money thing," he said. "I think this creates competition between groups. I don't like being handed a bill and told to pay because we did it before."

The discussion came after Shane Wiesen, on behalf of the Farrell-Wheatland Little League, asked the commission to pay the league's charter fee and insurance, which he estimated at $950 to $975.

The commission did not pay the fee last year because the source it had used to pay such requests, a Community Development Block Grant made available by the city, was frozen while the commission's use of CDBG funds was investigated.

In November, the state released the money for use by the commission.

Wiesen said the league paid last year's fee and insurance with leftover funds and by having the children hold an extra fund-raiser.

Falconi said that shows there are other ways for the group to pay its basic expenses.

Farrell school director Lester Robinson Jr. said his grandson played Little League last year and he thought it was a well-run program.

"I think this, run correctly, has a great influence on the kids," said Robinson, who used to coach Little League in Sharon.

But Robinson lost sympathy when he let on that the league held a free banquet for parents.

Board member Linda Wheaton said that when her son played Little League, she had to pay a registration fee that went for the charter and insurance, and worked in the concession stand to raise extra money.

"The responsibility was on you, the parent," she said.

Falconi separated the league's request from a COG request for $1,022 to run the softball complex in Shenango Township.

Falconi said the city, as a member of COG, is committed to paying the money, and either the commission or the city must pay.

But commission officials, who agreed to pay the assessment, believe they can get a lot more for their money.

Chairman Riley Smoot Jr. said Farrell's softball leagues will meet with COG about using the field for their games. Recreation Director Anthony Retone, who also is Farrell schools' assistant athletic director, said he would like to see the high school softball team use the COG field as its home field.

The team plays on an open area at Mercer Avenue and Sharon-New Castle Road that has a backstop, but really isn't laid out to play ball.

"Our field isn't great," he said.