More About the Garden and the Youth Center
Last night Gossips went to the Youth & Aging Committee to ask about the fate of the raised beds from the Youth Center garden. There was no answer to that question, but some other things of interest were learned.
- Everyone seems to accept the fact that the garden was removed to make way for the new Senior Center addition being planned, but no start date has been announced for that project.
- There were still unharvested vegetables in the garden when it was destroyed.
- Neither Youth Director Trudy Beicht nor Youth Committee Chair Wanda Pertilla had any forewarning that the garden was to be disassembled. DPW workers just arrived and took it apart.
- A daily average of thirty-five kids used the Youth Center during the month of September. Pertilla reported that on a recent night, there were six kids playing basketball and four paid staff members supervising them. (The Youth Department's slice of the 2010 city budget totaled $456,076.)
- No one at the meeting knew what plans, if any, there were for the raised beds that had been created for the garden.
Carole, this report, of course, makes me want to cry. When I was on the board of the Boys & Girls Club, we averaged about 250 kid visits a month. This with a budget of about $180,000, only about half of it from taxpayers. Some "rescue."
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, Peter, there are two items in the 2010 city budget: Youth Programs ($358,708) and Hudson Youth Center ($97,368). I combined them for the figure I provided: $456,076. Also, although I was stunned by the number and asked Wanda and Trudy to confirm it, I was told that attendance in September is always low.
ReplyDeleteGreat example of "bullying" - a term we all should be aware of by now.
ReplyDeleteWow. 4 paid staff and 6 kids.
ReplyDeleteMy old prep school, St. Mark's, doesn't have staff/student ratios like that, and the fees at St. Mark's (tuition, room, board) now approach $50,000 per year.
Hudson must be one wealthy city.
Thanks for the clarification, Carole. --peter
ReplyDelete