City denies request for Boys and Girls Club program funding
City says funding program would be viewed as donation
MOSES LAKE — After making a presentation to the Moses Lake City Council last week, Bob Bernd, president of the board of directors for the Boys and Girls Club of the Columbia Basin, did not receive the $10,000 support his agency was hoping for.
The money Bernd requested from the city would be used to start a Skills Mastery and Resistance Training Moves (SMART Moves) program at the Boys and Girls Club of the Columbia Basin Moses Lake site.
SMART Moves is a prevention program that aids youth between the ages of 6 and 15 in resisting drug, alcohol and other drug use, as well as premature sexual activity. The program uses interactive, small-group activities to increase peer support and enhance life and leadership skills.
Paid staff from the Boys and Girls Club oversee implementation of the program which is conducted at club house sites and schools in the Basin. The city council didn't appear to be opposed to what the program would offer, but has asked for further specifics on how the program would operate, Bernd said.
"The door was not shut."
From the city's perspective, there is concern about the legality of providing funds to an organization that are considered to be a donation and an improper use of money.
Moses Lake City Manager, Joe Gavinski, said the city can contract for services with an agency, but cannot give money out to a program.
"The city can't give money to anything, that's a donation," Gavinski said. "It's a fine program and it's worthy of support from the community, it's just the city cannot provide that contribution,"
In the Moses Lake School District, SMART Moves is currently available at Larson Heights Elementary and North Elementary Schools, said Brad Overberg, executive director for the Moses Lake site of the Boys and Girls Club.
At North Elementary School in Moses Lake, the SMART Moves program has been offered for at least two years in 10-week intervals during the second half of the school year.
Third-grade North Elementary School teacher Jeremy Pitts feels the program has done a good job of teaching kids how to make right choices as it relates to not only drug and alcohol abuse, but how to be health food conscience as well.
SMART Moves is also being offered at Monument Elementary and Quincy Junior High schools in Quincy. The Boys and Girls Club has stopped providing its after-school programs in Quincy within the last week, turning them over to be administered through the Quincy School District's 21st Century Learning Center Grant, but will continue teaching SMART Moves there.
Four school districts in the Columbia Basin have been awarded a 21st Century Learning Center Grant as part of the Experience Education Project. The $887,000 grant will be shared among the Wilson Creek, Soap Lake, Warden and Quincy school districts and be used to create and expand before- and after-school programs.
The Experience Education Project is intended to reach students struggling academically by providing after-school programs and educational information to parents about college, GED and work training opportunities. The 21st Century Learning Center Grant is much better funded and the Boys And Girls Club doesn't see a need to compete with them, Bernd explained.
Brad Overberg, executive director for the Boys and Girls Club at the Moses Lake site, agreed with Bernd.
"We wanted to work together and it made sense to have a couple of our staff and kids move into that program," Overberg said of the children once served by the Boys and Girls Club in Quincy who will now become a part of the Experience Education Project offered through the 21st Century Learning Center Grant. "It's more of a partnership."
The Boys and Girls Club in Quincy served roughly 60 students who will be affected by the change over. The Boys and Girls Club of the Columbia Basin has been looking to continue expansion of the SMART Moves program to other schools and Boys and Girls Club sites, but finding financial support has slowed down that process.
While the Boys and Girls Club of the Columbia Basin already advocates drug prevention and teaching youth how to make right choices, Bernd says the SMART Moves program would be more comprehensive by offering the program at other schools throughout the Basin.
"Our emphasis is to create better citizens," Bernd said.
The Boys and Girls Club of the Columbia Basin hopes to make a second presentation to the Moses Lake City Council by the end of the year, detailing the specifics of the SMART Moves program.