SEQUIM — The Sequim unit of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula will feel the pain of a steep loss of city funding for the club’s teen program, a club leader said Tuesday.
The City Council, after long debate during several meetings since late last year, approved $12,500 for the club’s teen program Monday night.
The amount is a dramatic reduction.
Jerry Sinn, the Boys & Girls Clubs’ board president, said the council’s decision was unexpected in light of the fact that the city allocated the club $60,000 in each of the past two years and $100,000 in 2008.
“It means we lost from the city about 40 [percent] to 50 percent of our funding for the teen evening program,” Sinn said.
“We need to make that up.”
He estimated it takes about $90,000 to $100,000 a year to run the teen evening program, which helps at-risk teens stay in school and even find higher education and workplace training.
The organization is generating grant dollars and has a March 19 fundraiser planned at 7 Cedars Casino through The Promise of Hope Foundation.
“We’re just going to go around with donors and try to develop some private sources to provide for the teen program,” Sinn said.
The council approved a total of $70,000 in health and human services charitable giving.
Other allocations
Besides the Boys & Girls Clubs, other organizations and their city funding amounts approved were:
■ Dungeness Valley Health & Wellness Clinic — $15,000.
■ Sequim Senior Activity Center — $10,000.
■ Healthy Families of Clallam County — $9,000.
■ Olympic Community Action Programs — $5,000.
■ Parenting Matters Foundation — 5,000.
■ Peninsula Community Mental Health Center — $7,500.
■ Volunteer Chore Services — $5,000.
United Way of Clallam County, which recommended the funding amounts after the City Council asked for the agency’s advice, also charged a $1,000 administrative fee.
Councilman Don Hall voted against the allocations, saying he wanted the majority to go to the Boys & Girls Clubs.
Councilman Erik Erichsen also voted against the final allocations, reiterating that he does not believe tax dollars should go to charitable organizations.
The council’s final vote of approval came after City Councilman Bill Huizinga attempted to get the clubs $39,000. His motion failed for lack of a second.
In voting for the recommended allocations, City Councilman Ted Miller said, “We need to encourage corporations to donate, not the council.”
He recommended that funding be limited to the senior activity center, the Dungeness Valley clinic and the Boys & Girls Clubs, with the latter receiving the majority of the funding.
His motion failed.
Mayor Pro Tem Laura Dubois called the original United Way proposal, which finally passed council muster, “fairer and more balanced.”
The Sequim unit of the Boys & Girls Clubs is at 400 W. Fir St.
The Mount Angeles Unit is at 2620 S. Francis St., Port Angeles.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
