Update On Your Sea Otter Community Center
by Sandy Murray
Last October the Seldovia Recreation Service Area was approved by a vote of the residents in the area. Since that time a Service Area Board has been appointed by the Borough Mayor. All terms will expire in October 2012. Members of the Board are as follows: Vivian Rojas, Sheryl Hingley, Mark Janes, Jan Wyland and Sandy Murray. Vivian is currently the chair and Sandy and Jan share the Secretary/Treasurer position.
The Board meets on the first Tuesday of every month at 5 PM in the SOCC. These meetings are open to the public and we encourage you to attend. On April 24th the Board attended a three-hour long training session here in Seldovia. Several staff from the Kenai Peninsula Borough Administration boated over on a beautiful spring day. We learned a lot during that time and also learned that there is a lot more to learn!
It has been just about one year since we had our first fund-raising event for the Center. Because of your generous support, the building has been kept open and the electricity and fuel bills paid. These funds should keep the doors open until the tax money kicks in on July 1. We are trying to use as little of the loan given to us by the Borough as possible. Any money used from this loan will be subtracted from next year’s budget, so we have been frugal when using them. We have proposed a property tax at 0.75 mills to the Borough Assembly. This is less than the 1.0 mill cap.
We are in the process of establishing a fee schedule for use of the building that is fair to all parties. To this end we intend to charge entities and organizations for use of the center but not Seldovia Recreational Service Area property tax payers. The SRSA/SOCC board will be having a public work session this month to finalize the implementation implement of a concrete fee schedule for the future. This should be in place by July 1, 2012 after Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly approval.
Additionally, we expect to hold fund-raising events from time to time.
Over the past year, the building has been used for Yoga classes twice a week, Arts Council sponsored events, Chamber meetings, SVT sponsored activities, Friday Teen Nights and also has been rented out.
We are currently developing a contract with the City of Seldovia to provide an employee(s) to run the Center with service area board supervision. This will allow the building to be open for community use on a regular basis. Our goal going forward is to add more activities, more use of the building by youth, more hours during which the computers will be available to the public and more rental of the space to help pay the expenses. We ultimately want the building used 100%.
Thank you so much for the support you have given in the past. We look forward to your continued help and support as we move forward. If you have time to volunteer, that would be awesome! This is YOUR center and we want to know YOUR ideas and what YOU would like to see happen. You can contact any Board Member at any time or, better yet, come to a meeting. If we are to accomplish the goal of making the SOCC available and useful to the whole community, we need your input and partnership! Come participate in the regular monthly meetings of your Service Area Board of Directors.
Your Seldovia Recreation Service Area Board:
Vivian Rojas, Chair
Sandy Murray, Co-Secretary/Treasurer
Jan Wyland, Co-Secretary/Treasurer
Sheryl Hingley, Member
Mark Janes, Member
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