The Halifax County Boys and Girls Club will get rent relief from the paycheck of a city council member.
The Boy Scouts, however, will not have land their hut sits on behind the Jo Story Senior Center donated to them.
After discussion about the budget plight of the Boys and Girls Club, Councilman Greg Lawson, who is already donating his city pay to another charitable cause, agreed to donate his check to pay the club’s $460 a month rent. That will leave the organization at Third and Jackson streets to come up with about $170 a month.
Asked if she was pleased with the donation, the club’s executive director, Kim Taresco, told rrspin.com following tonight’s work session, “I am very much. This will help tremendously.”
In a July 26 letter to Mayor Emery Doughtie who, along with Councilman Ed Liverman, was not at tonight’s meeting, Taresco said, “The lower we can keep our operating costs, the more children we can serve.”
Taresco explained in the letter, the organization, which serves children from 6 to 18, sustained huge state budget cuts over the past two years.
She told council, “I think it’s very important the city feeds into what we’re doing.”
Council member Suetta Scarbrough said she visited the organization Monday. “They are doing a fantastic service for our community.”
City Manager Paul Sabiston also said the club does an excellent job and of the current economic situation, “It’s a tough environment for charitable groups. The city has to weigh what it can do.”
Sabiston’s recommendation in a July 30 memo to council was that because of the city’s financial condition, the rental fee should not be waived.
“If we can reduce it, I’d be willing to give my salary to do that and (the club) pay the balance,” Lawson said. “I’m not doing this for accolades.”
Boy Scout hut
Meanwhile tonight, council opted to not donate the land and Boy Scout hut to Troop 144 and to charge the troop the normal $15.58 a month trash collection fee, which is billed each year.
Council concurred with Sabiston’s recommendation which was contained in a July 30 memo to council. “A value of the hut and the land on which it sits has not been determined but it is my estimation that the land would be worth considerably more than the hut.”
Sabiston wrote the city needs to control the parking lot area used by the scouts. “The city would have to meet certain legal requirements such as declaring the property as surplus before any donation could be made. Finally, the boy scouts are still receiving a valuable and practical benefit by the use of this facility without making a payment.”
