Future of Falling Creek Park debated [Richmond County Daily Journal, Rockingham, N.C.]

July 02--The Rockingham Housing Authority's Board of Directors got its first opportunity to hear feedback from the agency's newly created resident advisory board Wednesday evening, when a meeting attendee spoke up about what should be done with Falling Creek Gym.

RAB member Elizabeth Smith attended a called meeting at the RHA's Rush Building to approve the agency's budget, and offered her thoughts on reopening Falling Creek when asked by board member Joe Mendola. She compared it to segregation at times during the discussion.

Mendola asked for Smith's input on the goal of re-opening the gym as "a year-round facility ... an overall activity area where children could be active."

He described a center with diverse programs ranging from academic to athletic activities.

"Is it just something to keep us where we are, and make us content?" Smith asked, adding that many in the community see it as a form of segregation to have activities for them at Falling Creek. "I think we should be thinking about integration whenever possible ... We should be thinking about the whole person, helping them to be able to interact with every race, every nationality."

Mendola replied the center would be open to everyone, but the children of residents of public housing in Rockingham would receive first priority because the facility belongs to the agency.

"What I'm picturing is a Browder Park situation, only over here, closer to the housing authority," Mendola replied. "And Browder Park is certainly integrated."

At that point, RHA Executive Director Angela McGill interjected her own thoughts on the little-used gym, pool and grounds located behind Leak Street High School.

"Falling Creek is a beautiful facility, but the problem is that a 225-unit authority just doesn't have the financial capacity to handle the overhead that comes along with it," McGill said. She called for the agency to look for non-profit partners and entities that are willing to rent it.

"Conceptually, if we don't agree on how to utilize it, then there's no need to take the second step -- how to finance it -- and if it's something that the community doesn't want to use, and feels like it's segregation, I wonder if I'm barking up the wrong tree," Mendola said.

"We should utilize it, but there's enough space in there to where the community -- everybody -- should be able to use it," Smith said.

Mendola reiterated that because the housing authority owns the building, he'd like to see residents have first priority to enroll in programs, but everyone would be welcome to do so.

"I'm looking at mentors, people to come and work with them," Smith said, citing a lack of positive role models -- particularly male -- for the children of the authority and calling on board members to volunteer their time with them.

"I'm a school teacher, and we have the same problems in the schools that you have right here," Chairwoman Denise Sullivan told Smith. "We had all these summer programs lined up, and we couldn't even get them to volunteer to come to them. But we want to be able to make this a better place and get more people involved."

"It's going to take people changing the way they think," Smith said.

In the end, she relented the ideas sounded good, but emphasized it would only work if people from the community at-large became involved.

"As long as it's not a program handed down to blacks by whites," she said. "It's just not going to cut it."

Mendola asked the board to create a committee to look at ways to utilize the facility to improve the community.

"This isn't something that's going to happen tomorrow, and we need to plan for it," Mendola said.

McGill replied by saying the agency's focus should be on improving the dwellings it manages before it sought to improve the lives of its residents outside those walls.

"Programs and services are great for a housing authority, but we can not lose sight of our mission -- to provide dwellings that are decent, safe and sanitary," McGill said, saying the agency can't afford to repeat the mistakes of the past.

"I commend the previous administration on the programs they offered -- they had Kid's Cafe, the 21st Century program and Head Start -- but the conditions of the properties were deplorable ... 100 percent of my focus is on those properties right now," McGill said.

At one point, she said everyone in the room knew the poor conditions of the dwellings after the agency received a 44 out of 100 on a recent inspection.

"It's a grand facility, but the RHA doesn't have the capacity to carry this right now," she said.

"It doesn't make a bit of sense to me if we fix the roofs, the walls and the floors, and forget about the people that live there," Mendola said. "It's not our main focus, but it should be a supplement to what we're doing here."

He compared the idea to "building a Taj Mahal. It doesn't mean diddly-squat without the people. I'd rather live in a tent and have a happy child."

The budget:

The RHA's first official budget in two years estimates surpluses in both the public housing and rental voucher program.

The total operating budget for the public housing program is $1,047,960, with an estimated surplus of $59,060.

There is $23,234 dollars allotted to operate the agency's Section 8 program, with an estimated surplus of $12,225.

There is also about $35,000 set aside to hire a program coordinator, whose basic job duties would be to seek out grant-funding and programs to help residents work toward upward mobility and self-sufficiency.

Staff Writer Philip D. Brown can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 32, or by e-mail at [email protected].

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Copyright (c) 2010, Richmond County Daily Journal, Rockingham, N.C.

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