Evans Center in Palm Bay remains open — at least for now — amid financial struggle
The fundraising deadline has come and gone but the doors to the Evans Center remain open — for now.
But that could change soon as Evans board members gather behind closed doors for the third time in less than a week to decide the fate of the community-focused center, and its employees, after raising funds in the wake of what was described as a $150,000 shortfall in operational costs. A deadline of May 15 had been set to meet that shortfall and keep operations at the center going.
"The latest is that we've raised about $63,726, close to half of the goal. We have some other potential donors out there but for 2 1/2 weeks, that's pretty good," said Peter Mannino, chairman of the Evans Center board, adding that the funding will carry the center through the summer.
But deep cuts and reorganization will have to happen, Mannino said, at the small market and community center that has helped revitalize the Palm Bay/south Melbourne neighborhood with jobs and a food market.
"The board is continuing to weigh all options. The people that will be impacted by this have to be our biggest focus and it's something that we have to thoughtfully approach," Mannino said.
A critical meeting could come as soon as Friday. It will also come with a backdrop of questions and calls for more transparency involving the board’s partnership with Neighbor Up Brevard, the community organization that banded together two decades ago to help revitalize the Booker T. Washington neighborhood in north Melbourne. Mannino is a member of both boards.
More: Evans community center threatened with closure in wake of cash shortfall
The Evans board — told about the $150,000 shortfall by Neighbor Up administrators in April — held an emergency meeting May 12 to discuss potential cuts, including jobs, but that session also ended without a vote or public statement. Another meeting took place Tuesday.
The Tuesday meeting ended without the board taking any action or making statements to the public. “… The Evans Center Board did not come to a decision today,” said Lynn Brockwell-Carey, executive director of the Brevard Neighborhood Development Coalition, said in a text to FLORIDA TODAY.
Neighbor Up Brevard partnered with the Evans board and helped to secure up to $700,000 in loans for the Evans center to be built and opened in the ow-to-moderate income area.
The 6,000-square-foot center — which has an annual operating budget of $500,000 — opened in 2019 but like other businesses, was impacted by COVID-19, forcing it to shut down repeatedly.
The center employs 16 people, from an executive director to line cooks in its hot deli. The goal now is to continue to raise funds to keep the center operational in one capacity or another. As of Tuesday, the center still had all its employees and all services were running.
Josephine Peterson-Hunter, who was named to the Evans board two years ago, said the two boards are struggling to find common ground on several issues.
"There are several options put out there that the board has to consider. But the bottom line is that we will be trying to see what we can do to continue Evans," Peterson-Hunter said, adding that she believes both boards need to come together so that the community can see the joint effort.
Another public meeting explaining the next steps for Evans should be scheduled soon, she said.
J.D. Gallop is a criminal justice/breaking news reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641 or jgallop@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @JDGallop
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Fate of Palm Bay's Evans Center could be decided at upcoming meeting
