Since 1921, Plumb Place has served women ages 18 and over in crisis situations with an emergency shelter, transitional housing, case management, counseling and job services. It also has offered connections to other area services.
With the Plumb Place doors closing Thursday, the United Way of the Flint Hills is forming a steering committee to look at ways to continue those services. Director Mickey Edwards says Plumb Place has filled a needed niche in the community.
Plumb Place Board of Directors Vice President Brandy Nance agrees.
The United Way is now joining with representatives of Corner House, CrossWinds Counseling and Wellness, Kansas Legal Services, SOS and other community representatives for the steering committee. The first meeting is Wednesday.
Plumb Place announced its plans to close Dec. 18. Nance says Richardson and a grant writer tried to secure close to $500,000 in grants to keep the doors open.
Plumb Place had struggled for several years after Emporia Police had announced an investigation into over $50,000 in missing funds from 2014 to August 2017.
Kevin Flott of Olpe State Bank was requested as receiver earlier this month and was formally approved for that role this week. Edwards says the steering committee will work with Flott on the path forward.
7:15 pm Wednesday: End of an era as Plumb Place Board of Directors holds final meeting
On Wednesday, the Plumb Place Board of Directors had its final meeting of the year — and of the board’s history.
The board discussed several items related to its official closure Thursday, including a drawdown of Housing and Urban Development funds to pay off debts. The board also resigned effective Thursday to let Lyon County District Court finalize receivership plans. Kevin Flott of Olpe State Bank was requested and formally approved for that role.
Flott will now begin work to determine the property’s future plans. The board is suggesting donating computers to ECKAN and Head Start, letting the Lyon County History Center get artifacts so it could maintain the Plumb Place history and legacy and let the residents take certain items with them to help in the re-housing process.
If nobody steps forward to manage and finance Plumb Place as it currently stands, the board has recommended an asset liquidation through an estate sale. Under that plan, all proceeds will go to the Emporia Rescue Mission to help homeless women find housing.
In a statement, the board says, “It is our sincere hope that our community and judicial system will continue to utilize these assets to help women in need and continue with the vision put forward by Mrs. Carrie Plumb.”
Since 1921, Plumb Place has served women ages 18 and over in crisis situations with an emergency shelter, transitional housing, case management, counseling and job services. It also has offered connections to other area services.
However, Plumb Place announced its plans to close Dec. 18, with Interim Director Mary Richardson saying the loss of grant funding, inability to secure additional funding and cancelation of fundraisers due to coronavirus this year all conspired to make the facility insolvent after several years of struggling financially.
Those struggles first came to light after Emporia Police announced an investigation into over $50,000 in missing funds dating from 2014 to mid-2017. There have been no arrests to date.
Issues continued last year. The United Way of the Flint Hills ended a better than 70-year partnership with Plumb Place when it did not include the shelter as a community partner in a move to ensure donations were used as indicated, according to former United Way director Jami Reever. The United Way had suspended funding shortly after the missing money came to light and ordered the Plumb Place Board of Directors to take several steps to be reinstated as an official community partner, including a fraud examination by a certified examiner and additional steps for accountability, transparency and training to meet United Way standards. The United Way then reinstated Plumb Place as a community partner and restored funding, provided that Plumb Place adhered to the United Way’s directives. The potential for closure was mentioned as early as October 2019 if it could not raise enough money to get through the end of the year.
Plumb Place started 2020 seeking to pay off about $25,000 in what Richardson called “high-range contracts” from past years. Early fundraisers were “modestly successful” before coronavirus canceled all remaining events, and efforts to secure grant funding were largely unsuccessful.
Five women were in the house when the announcement was made. All are in the process of moving to permanent housing of some sort or have secured housing.
