If on Nov. 22 the City Council approves Mayor McGinn's budget proposal, the Queen Anne/Magnolia Neighborhood Service Center will close and coordinator Christa Dumpys is out of a job.
And that's only the half of it. On Thursday, the council budget committee will meet to discuss the future of the Queen Anne Community Center, which faces severe cuts under McGinn's proposed budget.
The proposal means both the coordinator and assistant coordinator positions at the center will be abrogated. The recreation leader would be reduced to 35 hours a week, custodian 20 hours a week, a recreation assistant 15 hours a week and open hours at the center would be diminished.
Down the hill on Roy Street, in a discreet brick building is the Queen Anne/Magnolia Neighborhood Service Center where Dumpys has been working for the past four years.
The center is host to an average of 25 meetings a month and is home to the Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce and the Uptown Alliance.
Seattle has been renting the location at 160 Roy St. for about $45,000 a year and Dumpys annual salary is set at $75,000. As the budget proposal is written, Dumpys and five other neighborhood coordinators will lose their jobs and seven neighborhood facilities will close.
Jon Coney of the Uptown Alliance and Mary Chapman, director of the chamber, are looking into locations that the city owns. Space in the Seattle Center has been suggested.
Added to the potential loss of the gym and the service center is the expected loss of Seattle Police West Precinct Crime Prevention Coordinatior Terrie Johnston.
Johnston has worked for the SPD for 30 years, 24 of those have been spent specifically in crime prevention.
In 1973, the SPD started the crime prevention program due to a large spike in residential burglaries. Now, according to Johnston, there are 4,000 block watch programs all over Seattle with a portion of those in the Queen Anne and Magnolia areas.
"We are a good face for the SPD," said Johnston. "Especially during a time of public uncertainty about the department. We are like the glue that bridges the gap between the neighborhoods and the police."
Dumpys said the loss of a crime prevention coordinator makes it "three major hits which are the community's three main links [to local government and police]."
There is hope, though. City Council members have asked for green sheets in their deliberation of the budget. These sheets are change forms. And Parks committee chair Sally Bagshaw said she was committed to saving the community center. City Council will decide on the budget Nov. 22.[[In-content Ad]]
