Back in June when the Flagler County Commission was ready to close South Bunnell’s Carver Gym for good–and put another nail in its black community’s pride–Commissioner Barbara Revels was among those wielding a lighter hammer: maintain the building and invite others to make use of it if possible. But Revels had no interest in keeping yet another empty building on the county’s inventory. When the South Bunnell community responded angrily and publicly to closure plans, and clumsy, haphazard, attempts by Bunnell to find a solution went nowhere, Revels volunteered to lead a committee that would find its own solution.
The commission gave her a March deadline, imposed by the fact that the county agreed to fund Carver Gym at 75 percent of its previous year’s $110,000 bill (which pays for two employees, maintenance and incidentals that inflate the county’s contribution somewhat). Since fall, Revels’ committee produced a working paper for the gym and a partial funding proposal that secured $10,000 from the school board, $10,000 from Bunnell, and at least $40,000 from the county in any future funding arrangement.
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When Revels’ committee met today (Feb. 17), there was also agreement from the Police Athletic League (PAL) to use Carver Gym as a base of operation, with one or two employees there some of the time. That would be significant, as the county is looking for a “management entity” to oversee the gym and create a less loose environment than it’s been so far. (PAL has never had a home of its own, and its sports operations are spread all over the county. But it uses the old school board building on State Road 100, next to the high school campus, a location many of its members would find more convenient, and less intimidating, than Carver Gym, whose presence in a black ghetto would be news to many.)
The committee has also set up a fund-raising mechanism for the gym, and plans for a governing board, established as a non-profit organization, that would include all voices with a concern in Carver Gym, students and South Bunnell residents among them. But the governing board would not manage the gym. It would seek grants–including two possible grants that would help round out the funding the gym needs to stay open: $15,000 from the Public Safety Coordinating Council (which has a $55,000 pot to draw from), and another grant, of unspecified dollars, from one of the county sheriff’s pots. The governing board’s fund-raising arm would still be responsible for coming up with several thousand dollars of its own.
The Revels committee includes representatives from the school board, Bunnell’s city government, Cheryl Massero (the director of the school board’s Youth Center on the campus of Flagler Palm Coast High School), and several members of the South Bunnell community, among them Chris Borgman, a vocal opponent of any plan that would dilute South Bunnell’s control over the gym.
That’s Revels’ opposition.
“It seems like they want to do the right thing for the gym but the thing they want to do—and again, this might not be accurate, but it seems like they want to find an outside entity that eventually takes over the functions of the gym, and that’s not something that we completely want,” Borgman said. The reason he qualified the accuracy of the statement is that the committee itself is trying to find a way to have an outside managing entity without calling it that, so as not to alienate the Borgmans in the equation. Borgman won’t be fooled, however. “As citizens we want the ultimate control and ownership and the governing body to be the county.”
In other words, he wants the two current county employees to call most of the shots. That’s not likely. It’s not even likely that both would remain, as opposed to just one.
“Basically,” Revels said Monday of Carver’s future, “I and others say to that community: it is not going to stay the way it is. We have to accept that, and we have to make it better. We have to move forward and we have to make it better.” She added: “This building and its legacy has got to be the focal point to make this happen,” Revels said Monday. “If we can get away from who’s in charge, the thing that Flagler County seems to be stuck in all over the place, then I think we can come together as a group, and have these programs come to fruition.”
What that means in the gym itself is that whoever runs it will be a “a blended group of users that will have rules, there might be fees for outside users to come in, and all those guidelines have to be established,” Revels said. She is holding a meeting with County Administrator Craig Coffey, School Superintendent Janet Valentine and a PAL representative to draw up more precise parameters that she would then bring to the county commission in March for discussion, first at a workshop on March 14 (at the Emergency Operations Center at 9 a.m).
Borgman is drawing a line. “We can make it better in some respects,” he said, “but relinquishing employees or doing away with employees who have a record of success isn’t making it better and we’d have to step away from the table and fight the county commission on what their intentions are, because we support those employee who are, Number 1, citizens of that community, and Number 2, have a proven record of success.” But Borgman’s stance isn’t likely to impress a commission faced with choosing between the blend of compromises Revels’ work has crafted so far and Borgman’s principled but now isolated intransigence.
W.Ryan says
As a retired N.Y.P.D. Detective I am morally committed to the youth of any community that I reside in. This is why back in 2005 I became a member of the Executive Board of the Flagler County Police Athletic. I was the only law enforcement officer retired or active for a year. I served as secretary for a time. I found that although the premise with which we operated was good we missed the mark. You can ask anyone about PAL and they will tell you that they are about the revenue, not necessarily the mandate to “Fill playgrounds and not prisons.” When I was there the major problem was the finance. Some qualified people came on the board and helped with regard to straightening the books. In doing so the fees for PAL increased and the so called scholarships, which were offered to low income families, were compromised in order to stabilize costs. We agreed to a means of 1/3 rd scholarships. This meant that everyone paid 1/3rd the fee for the lowest income( based on School lunch forms) and 2/3rd for more enable kids and full price for the children that had no lunch reductions. I insisted there had to be a way to help the less fortunate kids. I argued and won these families an appeals process enabling them the opportunity to play for free. Many families used it. Understanding of the community needs were overlooked without regard in this instance. Mel Figueroa wasn’t present at this meeting and was also opposed to any changes in our scholarships practices. Giving poor at risk youths a chance to participate is important. I don’t know if this appeals process was eliminated since I’ve been gone.
Seeing problems with regard to issues with the youth in school particularly minority students and Zero tolerance suspension, etc. James Crockett and Myself devised a plan to help “At risk ” teenagers providing mentor ship and tutoring. We had Punishment is still disproportional with regard to race. The plan was to take 2 PAL’s Middle School teams, which at the time had a roster size in access of 60 players from each school and cut the roster size to 35 for each Middle school teams thus providing an opportunity for Bunnell’s “At risk” teens to participate in the program thru Carver Gym. Truth is most of these kids stood on the sideline with this roster size. PAL had PEE WEE, Jr. Midget and Midget spaces in their possession. The PAL Board dismissed this proposal without giving an adequate disposition on the denial in writing. James and I took on that task and succeeded for two years with the West Flagler Raiders. We had help from a caring few. Carver Gym even got cheerleaders involved. Financially we managed the costs at $35 dollars a player thru parents, donations and sometimes through our own pockets.
After the first year we organized a middle school league with New Smyrna PAL , Buddy Taylor and Indian Trails along with two other organizations in St.Johns County. This was because all of these teams were independent of a structure so we created an alliance of teams agreement, schedules, a play off and a championship game which BTMS won. There were games in Flagler most all of the time. We also created the Bunnell Bowl for the Bunnell team. We awarded trophies. During the success Barry Clymer (Past PAL Exec Board Pres.) asked me to resign my Board position because of a “conflict of interest”. To boot….PAL harassed us the entire time when it came to playing their two middles schools in our own Flagler County. They conspired to stop us from playing in Bunnell at the Eddie Johnson Soccer field. Bunnell stepped in and made sure we had our field (Thanks to the City Council who gave us a lot of help). When there were games in Bunnell there were less calls to the Bunnell 911. PAL complained about everything we did with hopes of stopping us. Unfortunately the last stab was fatal. They decided to take their Middle School program to St. Johns County in some obscure league despite all of these upgrades in their backyard collapsing the league we created which had six organization involved (ITMS and BTMS included).
PAL has been conspiring for a long time to obtain Carver Gym. Here is the in they have been after. At least when PAL does sign up’s for Fall Football they will be in Bunnell at Carver Gym. This may push them to also invite the Children in Bunnell which they haven’t done in the past.
Again! Charge fees! Close out participants! I see the good in people but the wrangling is too stressful. I’ll teach art to the kids instead. It’s therapeutic. Thanks Chris and James for being there for the Bunnell community and for staying in this fight. Don’t get hood winked. Unfortunately Rev. and Angie are expendable outside of South Bunnell. I’m glad you know the animal. Do what you can to stop them from blurring the lines. So since you know its behavior, hopefully you can deflect the bite.