Boys & Girls Club grant comes with warning

EOWYN LeMAY IVEY-Frontiersman reporter

PALMER -- The city council is giving the Boys and Girls Club another $5,000 grant, but it could be the last if the nonprofit doesn't bring its services closer to town.

The Palmer City Council last week repeated last year's $5,000 grant to the Boys and Girls Club, a nonprofit group that offers a youth development program for children ages 7 to 18. The club, which operates before and after school and during the summer, offers health prevention programs, youth leadership training, homework and tutoring time, art and craft activities, as well as sports and physical fitness activities. More than 500 Valley children are currently members of the club.

The clubhouse is located off Bogard Road near Wasilla and includes a library, game room, teen room, library, computer center, gym and, in the future, an outdoor sports field and a playground.

All this is wonderful, but too far away, according to city council members.

"I think it's the city of Palmer's desire to have a facility located closer to Palmer," Councilman Brad Hanson said. While he supported giving the $5,000 this year, he said he wasn't sure he could vote for it again next year if the Boys and Girls Club doesn't put a club in Palmer. He said he would rather the city help pay for something that directly benefits the Palmer community, "rather than subsidizing a Wasilla branch."

Even with the main clubhouse located on Bogard Road near Wasilla, club manager Fran O'Shea pointed out that 27 percent of the children who attend are from Palmer. Around $68,000 was spent last year on Palmer children and, she pointed out, the club is just asking for a fraction of that from the city.

When she first asked for the grant in April, O'Shea told the council that $5,000 is just 1 percent of the club's total annual budget but is significant not just because of the monetary contribution itself but because it helps spark other agencies and businesses to give to the nonprofit.

"We have worked hard to carefully craft a diverse funding base," O'Shea told the council at an earlier meeting. "It really depends on the support of the community … and it needs to be in the form of dollars."

At the same time, O'Shea said she understands and supports Palmer's desire to have a clubhouse closer to the town.

"And Anchorage [headquarters] is aware that Palmer needs a club," O'Shea said.

Councilman John Combs said the city grants, in the long run, could help bring a club to Palmer.

"I see this as putting an investment toward keeping the organization going until it gets to the point of putting one in Palmer," Combs said. He said he would like to have a youth facility in town that children could walk or bicycle to.

"I think this is a good investment in the future of this community," Combs said before voting in favor of the grant.

One council member voted against the $5,000 gift, not because there isn't a Boys and Girls Club in Palmer but because he said the grant is helping a nonprofit compete with some of Palmer's businesses.

"I would love to have them here in Palmer … but I'm not sure it's the business of the City of Palmer to support them," Councilman Tony Pippel said. "I know it makes you sound kind of grinchy … but we're in the road and water and sewer business." Pippel said he has heard from constituents who operate private daycares and say the Boys and Girls Club takes away their business and shouldn't be subsidized by the city.

Pippel voted against the grant to the Boys and Girls Club but said he wouldn't be disappointed if it passed anyway, which it did. His was the only no vote.