Where’s the money?

Money for local groups such as the Wake Forest Boys & Girls Club have been included in the town budget for years, but this year retired Town Manager Mark Williams proposed to fund only three groups and give nothing to the youth club.

Two speakers during the public hearing about the budget Tuesday night eloquently spoke for the club and urged the five commissioners to provide funding without mentioning an amount. For the past three years at least, the club has asked for $8,000 with Williams proposing $7,500, which the commissioners have agreed with.

Amy Dowdle, a former Boys & Girls Club employee and mother of three children who go to the club, read a letter from her father, attorney James Warren, who wrote that the club serves a number of underprivileged children and “without the guidance and leadership of the club these children, our children, would be lost.” He wrote that the money spent on the club gives the best return on the investment, “the biggest bang for the buck,” and “provides tremendous help where it is needed most.” Warren and his wife are visiting their son, Anthony, who is serving overseas with the U.S. Air Force.

Michael Glover, who was a member and is now a volunteer and on the advisory board at the local club, said it has over 1,000 members, making it the largest Boys & Girls Club in Wake County and one of the five largest in the state. The club teaches life skills to children and teens through high school, he said, for a $7.50 annual fee. Though the number of middle and high school students who stay with a club is falling off nationally, the number of those who through high school is increasing in Wake Forest. There is a 100 percent graduation rate for those who remain with the club through high school. The most positive outcomes, Glover said, are seen in those children who remain with the club the longest, outcomes that begin happening after 52 visits.

A letter from Alecia Hayes, a mother whose children were in the fifth and eighth grades when she was divorced, was included in the commissioners’ meeting packet. “My kids started attending and thrived there. I began to thrive at work as I knew that my kids were safe and happy in the afternoon.” Her daughter is Kyndall DySard, who moved from attending to being on staff, earning Youth of the Year awards at the local club twice and once at the county level. She was named the town’s Good Neighbor Day Youth of the Year and just completed her sophomore year at UNC-Wilmington. “Kyndall has often said that, without the Boys & Girls Club, her life would be drastically different that it is today,” Hayes wrote.

This year Williams proposed only funding Resources for Seniors, which runs the programs at the Northern Wake Senior Center, at $4,000, and adding $6,240 to the usual $5,000 the Fourth of July Committee usually receives, with the additional money needed to pay for police protection during the two days of events.

Last year the Wake Forest Birthplace Society, which owns and operates the Wake Forest Historical Museum, asked for $6,000 and was given $4,000. This year the request was for $4,000 and Williams recommended it receive nothing.

Two other groups asked for some money this year; Guiding Lights asked for $4,000 and Big Brothers Big Sisters asked for $5,000. Sherita Young spoke for the last group, which provides one-on-one relationships for 850 young people in the Triangle.

The largest amount has gone for years to the Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce, which acts as the economic development arm of the town. It asked for $1,000 more this year but Williams recommended it get only the $98,500 it has received the past three years. Don Bowman, a member of the chamber’s economic development committee, thanked the town board for the funding and said the group is “most excited about the next few years” as they pursue their strategic goals.

The mayor and commissioners will hold a work session about the budget on Thursday, June 4, at 5 p.m. in town hall. They must agree on a balanced budget by the end of June.