We’ve learned the Magnolia Community Center has offered to help out with the budget crunch facing several programs at the Queen Anne Community Center. Under the mayor’s budget proposal, the gym at the Queen Anne facility would be closed in 2011 to make room for the studios of BizKid$, a national public television series for children. Volunteers and supporters of the Queen Anne center showed up Wednesday at a budget public hearing in Northgate to tell the City Council they want the gym to stay open.
“Yesterday afternoon the phone was ringing off the hook. All kinds of parents and coaches wanted information,” said Pat Barger who serves as a volunteer at the Queen Anne community center.
A sign urging the City Council to keep the Queen Anne gym open
The Queen Anne gym and McClure’s gym are used by 22 youth basketball teams, and Barger isn’t sure how many of those teams can be relocated. The gym is also used for several other programs. Barger says Magnolia has offered to help.
A crowd lines up to speak at Wednesday night’s budget hearing in Northgate
The Magnolia Community Center will continue to receive full funding and operate normally under the mayor’s proposed budget, but the Environmental Learning Center at Discovery Park is facing funding cuts.
To see more on the mayor’s proposed budget, click here.
The next public hearing on the budget takes place Wednesday, October 13 at South Seattle Community College at 5:30pm. The City Council has also set up a web page where you can submit ideas to balance the budget and vote on other suggestions.
