Questions, tension spill as community leaders talk about impending closure of Evans Center

Editor’s note: At an Aug. 22 meeting regarding the future of the Evans Center, a former Evans board member said he didn’t recall serving as board treasurer despite being listed on state documents as such. On Monday, Carlton Hemley reached out to FLORIDA TODAY to say he did indeed serve as board treasurer, which he confirmed after reviewing board documents. He served as the board’s first treasurer between 2010-2012. The story below has been updated to reflect Hemley’s statement to FLORIDA TODAY about his service in that capacity.

It was at times a contentious meeting, punctuated by prayerful calls of unity, as community leaders vented frustrations and fielded hopes about a possible reset for the Evans Center as it prepares to close its market at the end of August.

Nearly 50 people showed up at the Evans Center Tuesday for a community forum — the third since the beginning of the year — to talk about how the $1.4 million center meant to be a vibrant south Melbourne/Palm Bay neighborhood hub fell to a series of seemingly insurmountable financial challenges.

The community center, which operated a hot deli, employed a dozen people and sold fresh produce and other goods within walking distance of the predominantly Black working-class area, will close its doors Aug. 31. A meeting room and a Brevard Health Alliance office will remain open.

“I do take personal responsibility, but we could have done more,” Peter Mannino, chairman of the Evans Center board and immediate past president of NeighborUp, the nonprofit that partnered with community leaders to open and finance the center.

Mannino apologized several times during the meeting, which lasted more than two hours, as questions over management and organizational miscalculations continued following his presentation.

The center simply didn't have the customer base it needed, Mannino said, and ran out of options.

“I want to apologize to the community. This has broken my heart. I personally wish we could have done more,” he said, adding that more fundraising could have been done to raise money needed to keep the center fully functional.

More: Evans Center to close by end of the month; task force to decide fate of Palm Bay center

Attendees — including liaisons for the Evans Board and NeighborUp — pointed to a number of factors as causes for the financial collapse of a nonprofit business model designed to provide access to food sources and job training.

Contributing factors cited for that collapse ranged from management turnover, inflation, a lack of planning for fundraisers to underwrite center operations to a bad business model hampered by retail competition from Walmart and dollar stores, the COVID pandemic and a growing sense of mistrust from the community over who was in control of the center.

The goal now, officials said, is to have a task force sort through the numbers to determine how to avoid the financial traps of the past in order to plan for the future, including one that will navigate a divorce of sorts between NeighborUp and the Evans Center.

The Evans board was told in April about a $150,000 shortfall by administrators of NeighborUp, the nonprofit organization overseeing the financial structure of the since securing loans and grants to open the center in 2019.

A campaign to save the market raised more than $70,000, primarily with donations from the community and private donors. There were budget and job cuts earlier this summer — including a vote to slash the job of the primary fundraiser — but no other major campaigns to raise the remaining cash were held, residents said.

Two loans remain due, including one for $400,000 and another for $300,000, with NeighborUp taking the loss. However, questions about whether the 6,000-square-foot building would be the collateral remained mostly unanswered.

Hands shot up in the air several times as audience members took aim at what they saw as discrepancies and the reliance on a single donor who provided just over $1 million that was used to cover costs.

Two current employees at the center also pleaded for information. Vickie Mitchner, president and founder of the Space Coast Black Chamber of Commerce, said during the meeting that she "came away with a bunch of questions" as head of the new task force.

“There’s a lot of mistrust in this community,” she said, pointing out that the Evans board had never seen supporting financial documents like bank statements prepared by NeighborUp.

She also stated that the organization had even listed a former board member as a treasurer, despite the member later stating he never took on the role.

That board member, Carlton Hemley, clarified later with FLORIDA TODAY that in the days following the community meeting, he reviewed documents in his possession that reminded him he was the board’s first treasurer. He said it was never his intention “to create further distrust in the community,” and his memory was jogged by reviewing the documents.

“I never had any reason to be concerned about the Evans Center financials that I reported to the Evans board,” he said.

The task force, Mitchner said, had to look for ideas that could potentially revive the center, from seeking a new round of cash flow to having a community kitchen.

At one point during the meeting, Trevor Howard, a former director of the Dorcas Outreach Center for Kids, or DOCK, another NeighborUp initiative that provides a learning facility for the children of the Booker T. Washington neighborhood in north Melbourne, called for leaders to set aside recriminations and work on solutions.

“We need to be able to learn how to forgive,” said Howard, who said God led him to Tuesday’s meeting.

“God said for me to get over here, we've got to stop allowing our community to be divided from within,” he said, crediting NeighborUp with giving him a chance to work with youth.

A round of questions dealing with financial reports prompted another audience member to plead for the community to not delve into the past but focus on the future.

Mitchner, however, disagreed and added that a thorough review of financial records and previous audits should be a part of any push forward to recalibrate the center’s mission in the community. The task force will continue to meet, she said.

Too often, Mitchner said, minority communities rely too much on outside groups, such as when it came to NeighborUp's role in the Evans Center's operations.

“We should never stay silent. If you don’t know what happened in the past, you’re doomed to repeat it,” she said.

“The Evans board was operating off of blind trust."

J.D. Gallop is a criminal justice/breaking news reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641 or jdgallop@floridatoday.com. 

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: As closure looms at Evans Center, community asks: How did this happen?