Saturday, October 18, 2008

Community center director needed full-time, council says

Clara Garcia News-Bulletin Staff Writer; cgarcia@news-bulletin.com

Bosque Farms The Bosque Farms Village Council decided Thursday that the community center director should remain a full-time employee after Gloria Stanley, the current director, retires in December.

Stanley, who has been the director for more than 17 years, told the council there is too much going on at the center and it would be difficult for the person who replaces her to only work part-time.

Councilor Virgil Proctor suggested that the position be part-time after Stanley leaves to save the village money. He told the council during the regular meeting on Thursday that hiring another full-time director would cost the village more than $10,000 in health insurance, a benefit that Stanley has opted out of.

"Presently, with the salary and benefits, I come up with $31,000 in total for the position," Proctor said. "If we run with this as it presently is with a 40-hour-a-week position, including the health insurance, it would really up the cost of our expense on the community center."

Proctor said there is not enough money in the current budget to pay for the expense. He asked that the council consider advertising the position as part-time in order to save money.

"I think we're going to have to make some serious cuts in the next six months, and I think this is a place to start," Proctor said.

Councilors Robert Knowlton and Bill Kennedy, as well as Mayor Wayne Ake, disagreed with Proctor's suggestion, saying that the village needs a full-time community center director, not only to manage what is happening there now, such as the senior citizen's program, but also hopefully to expand and add programs. Councilor Dolly Wallace didn't attend the meeting.

"I'm against cutting it (the position) to part-time," Ake said. "I don't want to see the programs we do have there end. People go there for their daily meals, they socialize and they recreate, and I think that's going to suffer."

The mayor also told the council that Stanley has been working hard over the past few years making sure that the community center is a place that people want to rent for various parties.

"She's worked hard to make sure it's a diamond, and if we go part-time, we'll be going backwards," Ake said.

Stanley told the council that it takes a lot of time to run the center and since she started as a part-time employee 17 years ago, the programs she oversees have grown. She also explained that the only reason she opted out of the village's heath insurance plan was because she was already covered by her husband's policy.

"I really don't think someone can do this part-time," she said.

In other action, the council: