Garth Yetter, foreground, picks up tree limbs and brush along with another volunteer at Preston Park in Butler Township in April. The township has initiated a long-term program for the park to fund itself.

Butler Township is paying a company to establish a Preston Park-supporting nonprofit that will hopefully keep the park from needing cash from future township budgets.

Butler Township commissioners earlier this week hired Righetti Ventures of Sewickley to start a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit tentatively called Friends of Preston Park. The township will pay $6,278 for the nonprofit's creation, and then another $19,400 for a year's worth of fundraising efforts and long-term planning.

The move, commissioners explained, is hoped to cover long-term costs for the park once a fundraising program is established. Tom Knights, township manager, mentioned the project during Thursday night's budget meeting.

“Ideally Preston Park is never on the general fund ever again,” Knights said. “Self-sustaining is definitely the goal.”

After the year of planning work, the operations will be turned over to a board. The details of how that board will be set up are yet to be determined, said John Righetti, company president.

The end goal, he said, is to have “an external fundraiser mechanism that can fund-raise for them.”

As for the cost, the “vast majority” of the $6,278 figure will pay for required paperwork and hiring lawyers who deal with nonprofits, Righetti said.

The $19,400 will include costs for the full year of fundraising operations, plus startup fees for items like accounting software, he said.

Roxann Tyger, director of organizational development for Butler County's Alliance for Nonprofit Resources, confirmed that $6,278 was a reasonable figure for the process Righetti will be undertaking. She said a nonprofit could be started for less, but that paying lawyers to write by-laws and other associated man-hour costs could easily place costs in that range.

Knights said the commissioners will appoint the board members, but the number of members hasn't been determined.

It will take three to six months for Righetti to create the nonprofit, Knights said.

“Whoever the board is has got to go out and start finding funding sources,” Knights said.

Grants and donations received by the board will be used for site and capital improvement projects at the park.

The next scheduled improvement at the park are restrooms, according to Dave Zarnick, commissioners president. He said this improvement will not be funded by the proposed nonprofit.

Preston Park is an 88-acre park at 415 S. Eberhart Road.

A two- to three-hour walking tour of the park is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Nov. 24. The tour is free, but spots must be reserved by calling the township's office at 724-283-3430.