Copy of my written statement from the July Board Breifing held on June 24th. The statement is regarding the current status of the organization known as the Kernersville Downtown Preservation and Development Council. Currently, this organization is classified a non-profit, but annually requests money from the Town of Kernersville in order to sustain their operating budget. The amount the Town gives is $47,500 out of the general fund of the governing body and also a sum for marketing and promotions, normally in the amount of $8100 but this year $12,000. The board holds that it wants to be independent from scrutiny or oversight from the Town of Kernersville and taxpayers, yet wants to continue to receive funding without benchmarks or tracking of successes and failures. Should anyone want to see a copy of this year's Town budget, one can be made available to you in the next week or so at Town Hall for a small fee.
It would be my recommendation to shift funding currently allocated to the KDPDC to the community development department. This being a direct result of future growth opportunity, the culmination of the downtown task force recommendations and most importantly, this is the most cost effective and responsible manner in which the town can continue to fund and assist the KDPDC.
Let me clear by saying this does not dissolve the organization that has done much over the years to promote and nurture downtown when little attention was being paid to the core of our community—however, as the needs and opportunities have multiplied the funding level requests have as well, almost on a yearly basis.
The KDPDC has itself admitted that they constantly battle with appropriate funding, staffing, resources and marketing dollars-not to mention the volunteers’ hours are stretched thin not only with meetings, but with day to day operating activities such as accounting, bookkeeping, project maintenance, seminars, workshops, human resource management, insurance, technology maintenance and the list goes on and on. Many volunteers once on the board have no idea how much goes into the day to day activities and takes away from the crux of their purpose and passion—that which is downtown’s growth and sustainability.
By leaving the board intact and moving it under the town’s guidance, resources beyond our current reach can be under one roof and coupled with other town-led organizations such as the Pedestrian and Bicycle committee and Community Appearance Commission, which fit like a glove with the KDPDC and often overlap in efforts, yet stretch and sometimes divide resources.
As many of you are aware, the overwhelming majority of the task force’s work and recommendations included the town. How better to honor these commitments that the board of aldermen signed off on, than to take on the responsibility given to us and act to see them to completion. So much of what the KDPDC strives to do is already being done by the town at the expense of town staff and taxpayers.
As for the notion that this move is last minute and hasty, I have to cry “foul”. Anyone reading the minutes of last year’s budget session can see that this very board of aldermen along with the mayor acknowledged that the KDPDC needed guidance, direction and possibly oversight. I have met or talked with everyone present on multiple occasions and my plea to you for ideas on how to address this situation is no new notion. So here we are, one year later, with a strong town, a lean budget and a downtown that is poised to go to the next level, if we will allow it.
Mapping, planning, GIS, more diverse citizen involvement and greater collaboration will do nothing but strengthen the organization known as the KDPDC. Under this model, it and the downtown can thrive and taxpayers’ money will not only be used more effectively, but actually saved and we all campaigned on doing just that.
I hope that I can obtain your support. My support of downtown has been evident since day one and I thank taxpayers for making the infrastructure possible and now the taxpayers look to us to continue the momentum of their hefty investment.
-Brooke Cashion
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