North Little Rock's inclusion of an additional $50,000 in its 2016 budget to aid local Boys and Girls Clubs will allow the city to keep youth programs running at the Rose City Community Center next year, Mayor Joe Smith said Thursday.
The Boys and Girls Club of Central Arkansas will end its contract to oversee the programs at the center, 400 Rose Lane, on Jan. 1 because of low attendance, Smith said during a City Council budget workshop.
A public hearing on the proposed budget will be held during the 6 p.m. City Council meeting Monday. A second public hearing will happen at the Dec. 14 council meeting, with a vote for approval expected then, Smith said.
The general fund budget, which funds city operations and services and pays employee salaries and benefits, is proposed to be $64.3 million, after $141,693 was added after the first budget session last month.
Smith had said at that session that he wanted to include $50,000 to keep the Rose City programs going, but he hadn't worked out all of the details. Otherwise, an estimated 50-75 youths would be left out of after-school and summer sports and activity programs.
The extra funding doubles the amount of Boys and Girls Club aid in this year's budget. The Boys and Girls Club of Central Arkansas provides programs at two other locations in the city: the North Little Rock Boys and Girls Club, 1212 Wetherington Place, and Hamilton Boys and Girls Club, 600 North Palm St.
The proposed $50,000 will be transferred from the city budget to the Parks and Recreation budget, with the Parks Department covering another $60,000. The majority of the department's revenue comes from hotel and restaurant sales through a 3 percent advertising and promotion tax, commonly referred to as the "hamburger tax." The Parks Department's proposed budget is $6.1 million.
The funding will "keep Rose City open and keep things just the same as it is today," Smith said, referring to the center's youth programs and activities. "It comes back to us" to manage the programs, he said.
The city will need to make some "emergency hires," Smith said, to have workers for the programs by Jan. 1.
Alderman Linda Robinson of Ward 2, which includes Rose City, said she sees "tons of kids" at the center that need those activities available to them.
"We need to do whatever we can to keep it open," she said.
The revised general fund budget also includes $8,000 to fund a Police Summer Youth Program, proposed last month by Alderman Debi Ross. The camp, to be overseen by city police officers, is proposed as a four-night sleepover for up to 20 North Little Rock youths around ages 9-11 at no charge to the participants.
The biggest addition to the proposed general fund budget since last month is $100,000 to help repair the Lakewood Dam on Lake No. 1 north of Waterside Drive. The city's amount is about one-fourth of the estimated repair cost and was inadvertently left out of the previous draft budget, Smith said. The six lakes in the Lakewood area provide storm-water retention.
Metro on 11/20/2015