Monday night was filled with a lot of discussion amongst members of the Emporia Recreation Commission; however, it will be a few more weeks before any of the discussed items potentially see action.
Among the topics broached Monday evening was a $1.5 million Community Development Block Grant, which the City of Emporia is planning to submit an application for to assist with upgrades to the DeBauge Family Sports Complex. The city is planning to hold a public hearing on the matter during its regular action meeting on Wednesday and plans to submit the grant by July 2.
With that in mind, the city is asking the ERC to consider providing a sizeable contribution to the effort, roughly $1 million, which the ERC does thanks to previous plans for updates to a different facility, according to Rec Director Amanda Gutierrez.
That said, ERC membership ultimately chose to table the item until a special meeting on June 27th at noon. The reason for the tabling was that some members wanted additional time to gain a better understanding of the potential price and exact scope of the work.
Although no action was taken, Deputy City Manager Mark Detter, as well as Gutierrez, felt the ERC was generally in favor of supporting the item once they receive the requested information. Regardless if the commission chooses to offer a financial contribution, Detter tells KVOE News the city is “95 percent confident” it will have a matching contribution from at least one, currently anonymous, donor if not more.
The ERC does have some previous renderings for the work; however, those are from three years ago, and while the city does have the project estimated to cost around $7.3 million, Gutierrez noted that neither of those is set in stone.
In other business Monday, the commission began a preliminary conversation on potentially resuming after school programming for USD 253 Emporia after the district was “blind sided” by a 60-day notice from the Boys and Girls Club of South Central Kansas that it would be terminating its 10-year memorandum of understanding with the district seven years early just hours before the district’s board meeting Wednesday. USD 253 Assistant Superintendent of Business Operations Pam Stranathan says the district has not abandoned the possibility of finding a compromise with the club to continue providing services for the coming school year; however, with nothing certain, the district felt it was important to begin planning contingencies, hence Monday’s discussions.
The ERC did oversee the Rec Xtra program for the district for 12 years before the Boys and Girls Club took over back in 2022. A major difference between now and then, however, is the district subsidized much of that programming, something that is not an option now due to the district restructuring its budget following the MOU with BGCSCK.
KVOE News spoke with ERC Board Chair and USD 253 School Board member Jeremy Dorsey following the meeting, during which time, he stated he had several concerns about the club’s action, specifically if they even had the authority to take such action.
Separately, on Monday, ERC membership began discussions but took no action on the possibility of exceeding the revenue-neutral rate for the coming fiscal year. The board tabled those discussions until a special meeting on July 18. The board also tabled additional conversations on possibly joining a joint mill levy rate reduction task force until their next monthly meeting with membership, again saying they need additional clarification on the matter before rendering a decision.
The ERC will next convene for a special meeting on Friday, June 27th, at 1 pm via Zoom for more conversations on the CDBG matter. The commission’s next regular meeting is scheduled for July.
