The Emporia Recreation Commission focused much of its monthly meeting Monday evening on finances, starting with money recently returned to the Federal Government.
According to ERC Director Amanda Gutierrez, the ERC has returned the $500,000 in federal employee tax credits it received during the COVID-19 pandemic, which it was later discovered it did not qualify for. We have full details on that saga available at KVOE.com.
Gutierrez says the money is no longer in the ERC’s accounts; however, the situation is not yet entirely resolved, as they are still waiting to see whether any fees or penalties will be assessed by the IRS.
As KVOE News has reported, the ERC applied for the funds at the recommendation of Wright CPA and later filed a lawsuit against the company, stating that if any fees or penalties are assessed, it should be Wright CPA who covers them as the action was their recommendation. At this time, much like the ERC, the lawsuit is in a holding pattern until the IRS responds to the commission, according to Gutierrez.
Switching from returning money to earning money, rec commissioners also received a final update on numbers for the resurrected RecXtra program, which returned last school year to provide after-school programming following the premature end of the district’s contract with the Boys and Girls Club of East Central Kansas last summer. According to Gutierrez, the ERC ended the year “in the black” and had right around 3,000 attendees for programming over the course of the year, which averages to right about 200 students per day, bringing in roughly $102,000 with expenditures just over $101,000, leaving a fiscal remainder of approximately $1,300.
Gutierrez says a big factor for the program ending in the black was that the Boys and Girls Club left a lot of supplies and resources behind when they left the district. With this in mind, Gutierrez says she expects expenses will be slightly higher for the coming school year as supplies will need to be replaced.
That said, she is very confident they will still be in good financial shape at the end of the coming year as the district has two more years of funding from the Boys and Girls Club for RecXtra, as the agency allocated $375,000 to the district as a condition of the termination of its agreement with USD 253. With those dollars in hand, Gutierrez says the rec will not have to increase fees for families this year.
Following these matters, the ERC approved the 2026-27 budget for publication, with the budget coming to just over $8 million, levying a flat 8 mills.
The commission took all of the aforementioned actions following their annual meeting, where they officially closed the books on the 2025-26 fiscal year.
The ERC will reconvene in August for their monthly meeting.
