It turns out Phil Irwin didn’t have to give up on his dream to increase the Queen Anne Community Center’s hours, after all.
The Queen Anne activist and retired Boeing employee had spearhead a campaign last month to raise enough money from local businesses and residents to pay for expanding the hours of operation at the Queen Anne Community Center.
But when Seattle’s Parks Department officials originally said the initial estimates on the cost of expanding the hours at the center would be more than $100,000, Irwin thought his campaign was snuffed out even before it got started.
However, the Parks Department says it was wrong. It turns out that after taking a closer look at the figures, Parks officials say the actual cost of overhead fees and staffing the center sufficiently to reinstate the hours that were in place before recent city budget cuts amount to an additional $42,766.
That is a far cry from the figure of $121,000 Irwin was originally quoted and he says this number is low enough that his campaign has a fighting chance of success.
“This puts us back in business,” Irwin said. Last year, the center had its hours drastically reduced by Mayor Mike McGinn as part of an austerity plan to close a $67 million budget hole. The mayor’s original plan called for the center to cut its hours of operation to 15 hours a week.
Arguments from residents, including testimony from Irwin, helped the Seattle City Council find the funding to support an additional 20 hours for the Center. So, today, the center is open 35 hours a week, or roughly 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday. On Friday, the Center is open 1 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. It is closed on the weekends.
Pat Barger, the volunteer director of the Center, said the Queen Anne Center and four others around the city (Alki, Ballard, Green Lake and Laurelhurst) had their hours reduced. Queen Anne’s center saw its staff reduced from the equivalent of four full-time and one half -time position, to two full-time and one half-time position. But she said the center has been able to maintain a substantial number of the center’s programs.
The plan to rent the gymnasium and 10,000 square feet of the community center to a television production company was also defeated.
Irwin has been working with Queen Anne Community Council Chair Ellen Monrad, and Craig Wilson on his plan to raise the money needed to keep the facility open till 9 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. till 4:30 p.m. on Saturdays, or approximately what the hours of operation were before the recent budget cuts.
“I want this to be the community meeting place and a location where kids can grow up and do activities and play sports in a safe environment, just like my kids in the past,” Irwin said last month.
He had already gotten pledges of $750 from various merchants and businesses in the Queen Anne community and has paid for an advertisement in this issue of the Queen Anne/Magnolia News to promote the campaign and thank the merchants who have already donated.
Irwin hopes to get both large and small checks from residents and business owners who understand the importance of the community center in keeping the a healthy and vibrant part of Queen Anne.
According to a letter Irwin received from Sue Goodwin of the Parks Department, her calculations show that the total cost of keeping the center open each additional hour is $43. That amount includes the cost of paying an attendant and recreation leader to oversee activities and the additional utilities costs. To extend the hours of operation at the center till 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday for the rest of the year would cost an estimated $42,766.
As a former human resources employee for the Boeing Company, Irwin had said the original figure of $121,000 for the additional hours just couldn’t be correct. He said the $43,000 figure seemed more reasonable, although he still thinks it might be a little high for his calculations.
Irwin knows he still has an uphill climb to get the donations. But he hopes Queen Anne will rally around this campaign and, possibly, other Seattle neighborhoods will try the same tactic to raise money for their centers.
Said Irwin, “We are continuing to work together with the city to make this happen.”
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