The Pipestone County Commissioners Tuesday set the final budget for 2010 at $4,163,812 – a 3.57 percent increase over 2009.
In September the Board set the preliminary levy at 5.5 percent, but reduced it to 3.57 percent after cutting $77,571 from a variety of organizations following a Wednesday, Dec. 16 budget work session. During the work session representatives from the Historical Society, Performing Arts Center, Southwest Crisis Center, Extension Office and Senior Center were allowed to plead their case to the Board.
The most impassioned plea came from Helen H. Deweerd, a member of the Edgerton Senior Center, who came to ask the county not to cut funding to the Senior Center and its director, Donna Straw.
“I just want to say that every month when Donna talks to us she lifts us up,” Deweerd said.
She told the Board that Straw provides tips and information to her and other seniors that they otherwise might not receive.
“We’ve paid taxes all these years, thousands and thousands of dollars, and now to cut our help – Is it right?” Deweerd asked the Board. “We do need help. We need Donna.”
The Board listened to Straw explain, for about an hour, what she does and what would happen if her funding were cut by 50 percent.
“I would have a hard time telling you what I do,” she began. “I know that may not be the proper thing to say, but it’s absolutely true because I do different things at different centers and I do different things for people who walk in the door.”
Essentially, Straw said, she organizes activities and provides guidance for senior citizens at the seven senior centers throughout Pipestone County. She plans trips, dances, card games and other activities and keeps the seniors informed through a weekly column, monthly newsletters and presentations.
Straw then handed the Board a list of activities that might have to be discontinued if her funding were cut and her hours reduced.
She would most likely reduce the number of visits she makes to the centers outside Pipestone, discontinue the monthly dances, have less time to provide seniors with guidance, the annual sixth grade essay contest could be discontinued, the annual Senior Citizen Day celebration could be discontinued and the seniors would have to coordinate the rotating card parties on their own.
While Straw’s presentation and the reaction of her supporters was the most emotional and passionate, Straw was not alone. Susan Hoskins, director of the Pipestone County Museum, also spoke to the board about what the Historical Society does and what the cuts could mean to them.
Funding cuts to the Historical Society, she said, could result in fewer outreach programs to schools, nursing homes and assisted living homes, a reduction in hours of operation at the museum and a staff reduction.
In 2008, she said, the museum brought educational programming to 1,792 people from around the county and every year 7,000 to 8,000 people visit the museum. If the hours of operation were reduced it would reduce the number of visitors and thereby income from admission fees and gift store sales.
While the effect on programming and hours of operation will be significant, it’s the museum’s three employees that will be most affected by the cuts.
With the museum open six days a week in the winter and seven in the summer, they are open a total of 2,528 hours a year. There are only 500 hours during which there is more than one staff member at the museum. When there is another staff member on hand Hoskins spends much of the time preparing for and providing outreach programming, tracking down research materials and running errands for the office.
Last year Hoskins said she provided about 70 programs, which took about 210 hours. That left her roughly 290 hours to take care of other out of office duties.
“The point is that two part-time staff positions are very important to the museum,” Hoskins said. “If we loose them our ability to provide our current level of service will be drastically cut.”
Also presenting to the Board were Ian Cunningham, Dale Roemmich and Dennis Hansen from the Pipestone Performing Arts Center. They stressed the popularity of the Arts Center and that it draws people into Pipestone from roughly a 30-mile radius around the city.
“We have about 10,000 people who walk through our door each year,” Roemmich said.
Many of the visitors from out of town, he said, also stop at the restaurants and stores in the community when they come to the Arts Center, thereby stimulating the local economy.
While the $5,000 the county contributes each year represents only five percent of the Center’s budget, Roemmich said, it is a vital part. It is equivalent to the amount the PPAC receives each year from a group of 11 local underwriters.
“The underwriter fund is not used for operating purposes,” he said. “The underwriter fund is used to help supplement the cost of bringing various artists into the community.”
Therefore, he said, if the county cut the $5,000 it provides to the center on an annual basis, it would negate the underwriter fund and might lead to higher ticket prices and smaller crowds.
Representatives from the Extension Office and the Southwest Crisis Center also spoke to the Board, but seemed to indicate that they might be able to find other sources of revenue, such as donations or grant opportunities, if the county cut their funding.
After hearing from the organizations on the chopping block, the Board members came to a consensus during the work session to eliminate funding to the Extension Office intern program and the Southwest Crisis Center and drastically cut funding to the EDA, Senior Center, Historical Society and the PPAC.
The cuts were approved at Tuesday’s Board meeting when the commissioners set the final 2010 budget.
It came as little surprise to the groups affected.
“I expected it to happen,” Straw said.
Funding cuts
$31,547 From the Senior Center, a roughly 50 percent cut.
$25,000 From the County EDA, a 50 percent cut.
$9,904 From the Historical Society, a 25 percent cut.
$4,420 From the Extension Office for a summer intern.
$4,200 From the Southwest Crisis Center, a 100 percent cut.
$2,500 From the Pipestone Performing Arts Center, a 50 percent cut.
$77,571 Total
