Sequim Gazette Editorial and Letters to the Editor
Boys & Girls Clubs deserve city support
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It's no secret that times are tough for local governments, Sequim's included.
Yet it's no easier for families, especially those where both partners must work to make ends meet or a single parent struggles alone.
Say what you will about growth; the big box stores have created a lowly paid workforce here whose children have no place to go except home alone or to the streets.
That's why the Boys & Girls Clubs' after-school program is so valuable. For $30 a year - a ridiculously small sum - it provides a safe, nurturing environment where youngsters from elementary through high school have someplace safe to go.
Not just someplace safe, the club is where they can find:
_ Friends and mentors in the adults who staff the center
_ A place to do homework and where academic endeavor is encouraged
_ Somewhere they can put their heads together and think up worthwhile projects.
Taxpayer savings, too
That's what it does for the kids. What it does for the city is almost as valuable.
It keeps them out of trouble, saving uncounted police hours answering mischief complaints and EMS hours treating minor (we'd hope) injuries.
That's what it does for the taxpayers, but there's more.
It's called quality of life.
Imagine, if you will, scores of young people with nothing to do but hang out at the Sequim Transit Center. The small crowd that frequents the facility now doesn't do much more than cuss (with nearly no imagination) and perform a few antics on skateboards.
If you are familiar with that scene as the wintry sun goes down, think of it squared, perhaps cubed, in numbers and in noise.
File this mind's eye photo under Y - not for youth but for Yikes!
Wash your windshield, mister?
All this is in evidence of saying that the Boys & Girls Clubs aren't just a wonderful facility; they're close to being a city service.
And if they're strictly not, perhaps the city should make it so.
Sequim City Council soon will decide on its 2010 budget. It should support the B & G C.
Two years ago, the city allocated $100,000 for the B & G C Teen Club. Last year, it cut the amount to $60,000.
This year there's no budget line at all and that's just plain scary.
There are two ways to handle trouble: Struggle to escape from it or steer clear of it to begin with.
Any police officer, any schoolteacher, any coach, any youth pastor - anyone who befriends young people - can tell you which is the wiser course.
Whose responsibility?
Sequim city councilors last Thursday pondered whether they should restore the $40,000 in 2010 or even support the club at all. All agreed that the programs should be part of a yet-to-exist parks and recreation department.
Fair enough. They also could be run through the Sequim School District. But no one is prepared to create that department or shift that burden now.
Councilor Erik Erichsen, while having nothing bad to say about the Boys & Girls Club, said it wasn't one of the city's core responsibilities but a social service program, and Mayor Laura Dubois agreed.
Other councilors lamented that the "tiny city" of Sequim must provide amenities for the 25,000-some persons who live outside the city but who use its facilities and services.
These arguments have two huge flaws:
__Public safety is a core city service, and that must include safety for children.
___Sequim happily collects the sales taxes from those "outsiders" who shop at its supermarkets and big box stores, so they largely pay their own way. Besides, 90 percent of Boys & Girls Club members live inside Sequim's city limits, according to Bob Schilling, the club's executive director.
City should ante up
Sequim's elected officials should restore the $100,000 contribution to the Boys & Girls Clubs and seriously consider increasing the amount.
It would be an investment in the city's youth as well as a long-range economy - cheap, as they say, at any price.
Councilor Walt Schubert argued the longest and most passionately about funding the club, and he'll have his say directly in an article below.
Of course, councilors can picture being stopped at
Sequim and Washington and having a teenager offer to wash their windshields for a buck or two or three.
See what I mean about price?
Jim Casey is the editor of the Sequim Gazette.
Yet it's no easier for families, especially those where both partners must work to make ends meet or a single parent struggles alone.
Say what you will about growth; the big box stores have created a lowly paid workforce here whose children have no place to go except home alone or to the streets.
That's why the Boys & Girls Clubs' after-school program is so valuable. For $30 a year - a ridiculously small sum - it provides a safe, nurturing environment where youngsters from elementary through high school have someplace safe to go.
Not just someplace safe, the club is where they can find:
_ Friends and mentors in the adults who staff the center
_ A place to do homework and where academic endeavor is encouraged
_ Somewhere they can put their heads together and think up worthwhile projects.
Taxpayer savings, too
That's what it does for the kids. What it does for the city is almost as valuable.
It keeps them out of trouble, saving uncounted police hours answering mischief complaints and EMS hours treating minor (we'd hope) injuries.
That's what it does for the taxpayers, but there's more.
It's called quality of life.
Imagine, if you will, scores of young people with nothing to do but hang out at the Sequim Transit Center. The small crowd that frequents the facility now doesn't do much more than cuss (with nearly no imagination) and perform a few antics on skateboards.
If you are familiar with that scene as the wintry sun goes down, think of it squared, perhaps cubed, in numbers and in noise.
File this mind's eye photo under Y - not for youth but for Yikes!
Wash your windshield, mister?
All this is in evidence of saying that the Boys & Girls Clubs aren't just a wonderful facility; they're close to being a city service.
And if they're strictly not, perhaps the city should make it so.
Sequim City Council soon will decide on its 2010 budget. It should support the B & G C.
Two years ago, the city allocated $100,000 for the B & G C Teen Club. Last year, it cut the amount to $60,000.
This year there's no budget line at all and that's just plain scary.
There are two ways to handle trouble: Struggle to escape from it or steer clear of it to begin with.
Any police officer, any schoolteacher, any coach, any youth pastor - anyone who befriends young people - can tell you which is the wiser course.
Whose responsibility?
Sequim city councilors last Thursday pondered whether they should restore the $40,000 in 2010 or even support the club at all. All agreed that the programs should be part of a yet-to-exist parks and recreation department.
Fair enough. They also could be run through the Sequim School District. But no one is prepared to create that department or shift that burden now.
Councilor Erik Erichsen, while having nothing bad to say about the Boys & Girls Club, said it wasn't one of the city's core responsibilities but a social service program, and Mayor Laura Dubois agreed.
Other councilors lamented that the "tiny city" of Sequim must provide amenities for the 25,000-some persons who live outside the city but who use its facilities and services.
These arguments have two huge flaws:
__Public safety is a core city service, and that must include safety for children.
___Sequim happily collects the sales taxes from those "outsiders" who shop at its supermarkets and big box stores, so they largely pay their own way. Besides, 90 percent of Boys & Girls Club members live inside Sequim's city limits, according to Bob Schilling, the club's executive director.
City should ante up
Sequim's elected officials should restore the $100,000 contribution to the Boys & Girls Clubs and seriously consider increasing the amount.
It would be an investment in the city's youth as well as a long-range economy - cheap, as they say, at any price.
Councilor Walt Schubert argued the longest and most passionately about funding the club, and he'll have his say directly in an article below.
Of course, councilors can picture being stopped at
Sequim and Washington and having a teenager offer to wash their windshields for a buck or two or three.
See what I mean about price?
Jim Casey is the editor of the Sequim Gazette.
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