Agency seeks extension on Ricketts Center lease
POTTSTOWN » Just three months into its first year running the Ricketts Community Center, the new agency granted the lease by the borough council had to shut it down due to the pandemic.
For the next 15 months, the center, under the direction of Jocelyn Charles, provided what programs it could, including free food for needy families, and hosting vaccinations clinics when its doors essentially closed.
Charles told the council in the short window from the time Boyertown Area Multi-Service Inc. took over to when COVID-19 shut it down, it had booted up several programs including an adult fitness center, a boot camp, afterschool programming, tutoring with Hill School students, karate, “Soccer for Success,” contemporary dance and a young mothers’ support group.
Despite the difficulties, the center “saw more than 8,500 people served in 2020,” according to the letter seeking a new lease.
Now, with the end of the 2-year lease a few months away, and the unprecedented circumstance of a worldwide pandemic having impeded much progress, Boyertown Multi-Service is looking to renew its lease to run the center for another three years.
Rob Laubenheimer, hired as the new executive director of Boyertown Multi-Service just one month after the agency secured the lease for the center, said the circumstances of the first year were unusual, to say the least.
“2020 was a year that none of us were prepared for. It’s hard to gauge success or failure during a pandemic,” he said.
“Our goal right now is to change the perception of the center,” Charles told council. “That it’s not just for kids (as it was under the previous operator, the Boys and girls Club,) but for the community as a whole, including adults.”
That emphasis will show up in some adult-only programming the center is planning, as well as some health programming and services undertaken by partnering with Pottstown’s own Community Health and Dental, Charles said.
Some of those programs are already up and running, as well as the shower and laundry service the center offers two days a week for those who are homeless.
Added programming, means added staff, which means added costs, which is why the agency is asking the borough to increase its contribution over the three years the agency is asking the lease to be extended, said Laubenheimer.
In 2021, the borough contribution of $40,000 would remain unchanged, according to the letter of intent provided to borough council and attached to Wednesday night’s agenda.
In 2022, the agency is asking the borough to increase its contribution by $5,000 and by another $5,000 in 2024, although the agency board is open to a lease longer than three years.
That increase would complement the fundraising efforts being undertaken on behalf of the center, Laubenheimer said.
Due to a “COVID bump” in available grants, the center did raise more than $240,000. In 2021, a new “development team” was hired and has already pulled in $142,000 said Charles Boruchowitz, the new director of development who was hired as part of that team.
He told council Wednesday that six additional grant applications have been submitted and he anticipates raising $250,000 in 2021.
That money will help both to build programs, as well as pay for some of the property improvements the agency hopes to make, said Laubenheimer. some have already been made, like new security cameras donated in November by Hobart’s Run, the neighborhood revitalization program funded by The Hill School.
Councilman Joe Kirkland, who represents the ward where the center is located and serves as the center’s liaison to council, noted the center is now “very well lit at night.”
It was October 2019 when the council selected Boyertown Multi-Service for the new lease at the center, from among several potential operators.
It became necessary after the Reading-based Olivet Boys and Girls Club abruptly announced in August it would cease operating the center.
The other potential operators were the STRIVE Initiative, YWCA Tri-County Area, Centro Cultural Latinos Unidos and the borough’s own Parks and Recreation Department.
Kirkland and Councilwoman Trenita Lindsay cast the two votes against awarding the lease to the Berks County-based agency.
Lindsay said she has changed her mind. Lindsay is on the advisory board and said Charles “is doing a fantastic job with Ricketts.” She told the council decision to bring in Multi-Service “was a good decision.”