For the first time since 2010, the Flagler County Commission is looking for ways to pull back from its commitments to the Carver Center–or Carver Gym, as it’s commonly known in Bunnell–and possibly divest itself of it altogether, if the School Board is interested in taking over.
Commission Chair Leann Pennington raised those possibilities at a workshop earlier this month and won her colleagues’ consensus to have Acting County Administrator Adam Mengel hold conversations with district officials.
The county owns the building and its grounds. The initiative was prompted by an increase in the county’s operating costs from $81,000 this year to an expected $112,300 next year, on top of the $97,500 grant the county gives the School Board to run the facility. The School Board pays the salaries of Carver Gym Manager Bonita Robinson, one full-time assistant and one part-time employee.
The operating cost increase is due to janitorial responsibilities, which increased when the county built an office-suite expansion to the Carver Center’s front end, creating a separate entrance for the Police Athletic League on one side and the administrative offices on another, and an elaborate lobby area with additional spaces that have increased the number of classrooms there.
“The School Board operates out of it daily. They have a whole office,” Pennington said. “General Services actually built an entire wing onto it. The county paid for it, resurfaced the ball courts, getting ready to do the parking lot. It’s a constant improvement, and it is one of those things that it’s 100 percent used by the School Board and PAL, and there was an agreement to let PAL in there, and PAL is primarily operating out of it now. So I feel like this is one of those areas where we need the discussion. Staff needs to kind of go back and say: how much county involvement?” (In fact, several other organizations other than PAL run their programs in the building.)
Over the decades the county has tried a few times to get rid of Carver Gym, the last time in 2010, when it considered ending its financial commitment, which was $117,000. There was an uproar from South Bunnell. The County Commission scaled back its contribution to $90,000 and said it would scale it back further in future years unless the Carver Gym community could find a way to support the building.
Commissioner Barbara Revels took on that responsibility, stood up a Carver Foundation board and a governing board, and won pledges from Bunnell, the school district and the Sheriff’s Office to make annual financial contributions in addition to the county’s, and brought it back from the dead, with ground-game assistance from Daisy Henry. The commission at the time then rode on the coattails of Revels’s achievement. Revels is still on the foundation’s board. Henry has since died, though Bunnell named the street next to the Carver Center after her.
“The governing board was intended to operate the facility and make decisions on repairs or anything the building might need,” Revels said. “The foundation was intended to be a support organization raising money. But the foundation has become very involved in monitoring the activities and programs and are always willing to help raise money or provide for items that are needed not being supplied by the government entities. It is my understanding the governance board does not meet on any regular basis, which might be the reason for Commissioner Pennington’s statements.”
The foundation board is thriving, Revels said, with its president, Taahira Lee, who brought a younger perspective into the mix, is technologically savvy, and is a good organizer. She successfully completed two Motown Madness dinners (the fund-raising dances) and two Juneteenth celebrations, and is working on a School Board candidate forum.
The Washington Carver Advisory Board may be a different story. It includes chair Marian Irving, Bunnell Police Chief Dave Brannon, and representatives from the Carver Village (the Housing and Urban Development subsidized housing area near the gym), the School Board, the county commission and the Carver Foundation.
The county hasn’t scaled back its contribution. But the contribution has barely budged since 2011. It is $97,500. In inflation-adjusted dollars, it’s as if the county had contributed $65,000 in 2011. Conversely, had the county’s 2011 contribution merely kept up with inflation, it would have had to be $139,000 today.
Either way, it may be too much for the county. “If we’re looking at true tax reform, and we’re heading there,” Pennington said, “this is one of those items that we’re going to have to have a discussion with the School Board.” Bunnell, Pennington said, is not in any position to take over the building, since it faces its own challenges with the potential amendment.
That amendment on the November ballot would raise the homestead exemption to $250,000 by 2028, sharply reducing general fund revenue for all local governments. The governments are scrambling to prepare, though they are also using the occasion to analyze what may be cut regardless.
For Robinson, a retreat on the Carver Center would devastate the South Bunnell community in particular and the larger Flagler community in general. “I’m hoping that they will reconsider, because of, you know, what the center provides to the community, the services that we provide,” Robinson said. “Our School Board, the governing board, the foundation have not sat down with the county to come up with a plan or a fix of the issue of funding.”
Carver Gym is the only community center west of Palm Coast, with effective popular programs. PAL’s big presence created some friction two years ago but the friction has waned. The Department of Juvenile Justice is at the gym three times a month, meeting with parents and students regarding students who have had school citations for vaping or other minor offenses. PAL also has the Sweat program (Sheriff’s Work Ethics and Training), a life skills program for at-risk students. Artie Gardella runs his “Synergy Senior Fitness” classes at the gym all week, Monday through Friday. “It’s huge,” Robinson said, especially the Monday-Wednesday-Friday classes, which draw 50 people each. That program pays rent. There’s also a computer lab for students for homework or games, and there’s an elaborate fitness room.
Robinson runs a senior social program on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which offers lunch and games. The funding for it comes out of the program rent revenue. The Flagler County Hurricanes, an athletic organization not connected with PAL, also runs a popular spring and fall basketball program. The Hurricanes pay to rent the building. “That’s the biggest asset right now is the basketball league,” Robinson said.
Career Source, the nonprofit that helps the unemployed, moved its offices from near the county airport to the Carver Center, though Robinson says that like PAL, it does not pay rent. The Flagler Education Foundation holds its annual celebration for the girls of the African American Mentor Program at the center. Flagler Palm Coast High School hosts a block party there annually. And several additional events are organized there.
The way things are now, Robinson says, the center is thriving. “The center itself is too important to the community, to the Flagler community, to have it just shut down.”
Leave a Reply