Trustees questioned over Belfast Community Center

To the editor:

I am a member of the Belfast Community Center, Inc. Our organization has been involved with the Community Center since early 2005. We are a

small group of women (eight women at the most, four women most of the time) who volunteer our time to raise funds for the upkeep of the "Old Belfast School," a.k.a. the Belfast Community Center. Over the years, we have raised more than $19,185 by cooking at different activities at the Community Center. Our food was always offered for a "freewill donation." Most of the money came from food we served during the auctions that were held at the Community Center. The auctioneers were kind enough to allow us to serve food during their auctions.

Our committee, the Belfast Community Center, Inc., raised enough money to have three new furnaces installed in the building, to fill up the gas tanks every year, pay the water, electric, phone, security service, lawn mowing, and trash pickup, and still have money to spare. No taxpayer money goes into the Belfast Community Center! It all comes from volunteers like ourselves and those who rent rooms, etc. We have never been thanked by the Jackson Township trustees for any work we have done

there, we have only been criticized by them for not giving them more money.

We have records of the money received by the Jackson Township trustees for the 2902 Building Fund (old School Building). Just since 2007, the auctioneers that were establishing a huge following on a monthly basis at auctions they were holding at the Community Center, had generated more than $6,100 for rental of the gym. Those same auctioneers were also renting rooms at the Community Center to store items for upcoming auctions. The total of  money generated from room rentals form the

auctioneers and other renters since September of 2007 is $15,220. The women who served food at the auctions and other fund-raising events for the Community Center generated more than $19,185 since September 2005 to the present. This is over $40,505 ... but the building isn't making any money? Because of your greed, the auctioneers went elsewhere!

The trustees appointed the wife of of a Jackson Township trustee to be the Building Director at the Community Center. This is poor judgment on your part to appoint the wife of a trustee to do the job that you are getting paid to do. Isn't that nepotism? If you did not have the time to do the job you were elected to do, you should not

have run for trustee in the first place. You are getting paid well, plus benefits, for the job you do for Jackson Township. You should be thankful.

Now to the Clothing Cupboard. Those clothes were given in good faith by the donors. It was a sad day to see them pitched out the window and thrown in the Dumpster, which was overflowing with clothes for over five weeks. On another day, a truck loaded with clothes from the Community Center traveled down State Route 73 onto Flat Run Road with clothes blowing off along the way. A citizen called and wanted to know what was going on at the Community Center. They had driven by the

Center and saw clothes being thrown out of the windows into a pickup truck, and the truck just went by their house. This could have all been prevented if we had been given the opportunity to offer them to another organization. 

At many of the meetings we have attended, one of the trustees remark that they are spending too much time discussing the Community Center. Well, on March 8, 2010, our organization presented the trustees with a lease proposal to lease the building from the township. This proposal was to be taken into consideration and shown

to Prosecutor Jim Grandey for his advisement. We were told at the next township meeting that one of the trustees had received numerous calls from local citizens who were against our committee or any one entity leasing the building.

We worked hard to receive our 501(c)3 non-profit status, which we received in August of 2010. We were excited; now we could apply for grants to have the building repaired and hold even larger fund-raising events, which we discussed at great length at the Sept. 13, 2010 meeting.

Jackson Township Trustees, thank you so much for showing us no appreciation for our dedication and hard work. Hopefully, when election time comes around, the citizens of Jackson Township will remember the current trustees' need for control which has caused the downfall of a successful Community Center.

The "old-timers" of Jackson Township bought and paid for the school building by hard work, dedication, and determination of the citizens of Jackson Township. In my estimation, the citizens of Jackson Township own the building, you are just the trustees. I know I have stepped on some toes, and I am sorry. Closing the building because of your dislike for someone is not an option.

I would like to invite the citizens of Jackson Township and alumni of the Old Belfast School to attend the next Jackson Township meeting on Monday, Nov. 8 at 7:30 p.m. Your support would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Nellie Williamson

Member of Belfast Community Center, Inc.

To the editor:

I am a member of the Belfast Community Center, Inc. Our organization has been involved with the Community Center since early 2005. We are a small group of women (eight women at the most, four women most of the time) who volunteer our time to raise funds for the upkeep of the "Old Belfast School," a.k.a. the Belfast Community Center. Over the years, we have raised more than $19,185 by cooking at different activities at the Community Center. Our food was always offered for a "freewill donation." Most of the money came from food we served during the auctions that were held at the Community Center. The auctioneers were kind enough to allow us to serve food during their auctions.

Our committee, the Belfast Community Center, Inc., raised enough money to have three new furnaces installed in the building, to fill up the gas tanks every year, pay the water, electric, phone, security service, lawn mowing, and trash pickup, and still have money to spare. No taxpayer money goes into the Belfast Community Center! It all comes from volunteers like ourselves and those who rent rooms, etc. We have never been thanked by the Jackson Township trustees for any work we have done there, we have only been criticized by them for not giving them more money.

We have records of the money received by the Jackson Township trustees for the 2902 Building Fund (old School Building). Just since 2007, the auctioneers that were establishing a huge following on a monthly basis at auctions they were holding at the Community Center, had generated more than $6,100 for rental of the gym. Those same auctioneers were also renting rooms at the Community Center to store items for upcoming auctions. The total of  money generated from room rentals form the auctioneers and other renters since September of 2007 is $15,220. The women who served food at the auctions and other fund-raising events for the Community Center generated more than $19,185 since September 2005 to the present. This is over $40,505 ... but the building isn't making any money? Because of your greed, the auctioneers went elsewhere!

The trustees appointed the wife of of a Jackson Township trustee to be the Building Director at the Community Center. This is poor judgment on your part to appoint the wife of a trustee to do the job that you are getting paid to do. Isn't that nepotism? If you did not have the time to do the job you were elected to do, you should not have run for trustee in the first place. You are getting paid well, plus benefits, for the job you do for Jackson Township. You should be thankful.

Now to the Clothing Cupboard. Those clothes were given in good faith by the donors. It was a sad day to see them pitched out the window and thrown in the Dumpster, which was overflowing with clothes for over five weeks. On another day, a truck loaded with clothes from the Community Center traveled down State Route 73 onto Flat Run Road with clothes blowing off along the way. A citizen called and wanted to know what was going on at the Community Center. They had driven by the Center and saw clothes being thrown out of the windows into a pickup truck, and the truck just went by their house. This could have all been prevented if we had been given the opportunity to offer them to another organization. 

At many of the meetings we have attended, one of the trustees remark that they are spending too much time discussing the Community Center. Well, on March 8, 2010, our organization presented the trustees with a lease proposal to lease the building from the township. This proposal was to be taken into consideration and shown to Prosecutor Jim Grandey for his advisement. We were told at the next township meeting that one of the trustees had received numerous calls from local citizens who were against our committee or any one entity leasing the building.

We worked hard to receive our 501(c)3 non-profit status, which we received in August of 2010. We were excited; now we could apply for grants to have the building repaired and hold even larger fund-raising events, which we discussed at great length at the Sept. 13, 2010 meeting.

Jackson Township Trustees, thank you so much for showing us no appreciation for our dedication and hard work. Hopefully, when election time comes around, the citizens of Jackson Township will remember the current trustees' need for control which has caused the downfall of a successful Community Center.

The "old-timers" of Jackson Township bought and paid for the school building by hard work, dedication, and determination of the citizens of Jackson Township. In my estimation, the citizens of Jackson Township own the building, you are just the trustees. I know I have stepped on some toes, and I am sorry. Closing the building because of your dislike for someone is not an option.

I would like to invite the citizens of Jackson Township and alumni of the Old Belfast School to attend the next Jackson Township meeting on Monday, Nov. 8 at 7:30 p.m. Your support would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Nellie Williamson

Member of Belfast Community Center, Inc.