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A grant is running out for the Boys & Girls Club's afterschool program, but the Plantation board may come to the rescue.
By TIM GRANT, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 4, 2002
CARROLLWOOD -- When the grant money for an afterschool program in the Plantation of Carrollwood expires in September, the community will have to decide if and how it will keep it going.
And, depending on what they decide, parents might have to find day care alternatives for their children.
Homeowners in Plantation voted in August against allowing the Boys & Girls Club to build a permanent facility in the community. "The vote was against a building, not the program," said Plantation property manager Tom Jones.
Right now, the nonprofit Boys & Girls Club is housed in five mobile homes. The $1,700 monthly lease on those mobile homes is paid by a grant from the Hillsborough County Childrens Board. That three-year grant expires in September 2002, and Jones fears it will not be renewed. He has not decided how he will make up for the lost grant money.
"If the solution is to raise tuition, it would amount to about $10 to $20 a month per child, bringing the fee to $65 or $70 a month," Jones said. "Right now it's $45 a month.
"Even if we have to go to the parents to get a tuition increase, they can't get that (low price) outside the Plantation."
There are 89 children attending Plantation's afterschool program. All but 19 live in Plantation, and some of the others have Plantation relatives who enrolled them.
Roy Opfer, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of Tampa Bay, said he's optimistic about the club's survival in Plantation.
"At least for 2002, our plan is to be where we are and to continue to serve the kids in the Plantation," Opfer said. "That's the foreseeable future. The long-term goal is to find a permanent building in that area for those kids."
Under the current agreement, Plantation provides the mobile homes and the outdoor recreational facilities.
Jones said the Plantation board of directors should decide on how to resolve the club funding issue by the end of June. If they decide to end the program in September, there will be no summer program this year because the trailers would have to be moved out by then.
"We would end the program at the end of the school year in May if we don't have a solution," Jones said. "But I expect we will."
- To reach Tim Grant call 269-5311, or at grant@sptimes.com.