The McMinnville City Board of Mayor and Aldermen held a special called meeting to review nonprofit allocations for three local organizations, resulting in two receiving more funding and one left out altogether.
The nonprofits revisited were Main Street McMinnville, Warren County-McMinnville Senior Center and Meals on Wheels. Representatives for all but Meal on Wheels were in attendance to make their cases one final time before the amended contributions were punted back to be voted on during next week’s regularly scheduled board meeting.
Previously, Main Street McMinnville was set to receive $5,000; the Senior Center was earmarked to have its contribution split into two halves, $14,250 given immediately and a second equal half awarded later if need was demonstrated; and Meals on Wheels was slated to receive no funding from the city’s 2024-2025 fiscal budget.
First to approach the Board were three representatives from Back to the Strip. During the last full Board meeting, Meals on Wheels divulged it had not received funding from Back to the Strip for this year and, looking to clarify the matter, Mary Walker, Chris Terry and Leslie Hayes spoke before the mayor and aldermen.
“We did donate to Meals on Wheels and we informed them last year at their board meeting that we would be changing our way of dealing with our money,” said Back to the Strip co-founder Terry in reference to Meals on Wheels Executive Director Nancy Mayfield’s statement about losing much-needed funding from the annual event. According to Mayfield, the funding was necessary to bolster the nonprofit through summer months when donations lag. “We gave them all of the food this year which totaled about 5,000 pounds and two gift cards: $5,000 to Warehouse Discount Grocery and $5,000 to Sav a Lot. Those were the two parking lots we take up on that day and take away from their business and, instead of sending the money out of town since all of the sponsors are local, we decided to give gift cards to those two so the money is spent locally.”
Since 2023, the group has raised $387,685 in addition to 5,000 pounds of pet food and 25 tons of food for human consumption. “We received their yearly expense and donations report and, on that, none of the food we have donated, from last year or this year, has ever been listed. We gave them $55,000 in one check and 55,000 pounds of food last year,” explained Terry of the group’s contributions.
“This year in January, our executive board voted to split the donations up throughout our community instead of giving all of it to Meals on Wheels,” Walker said as she took to the podium. “Back to the Strip is a community event where all the money is raised off of individuals and small businesses in our area.”
Instead of giving all of the generated funds to a nonprofit already outfitted with a building and commercial kitchen, Walker went on to explain, “We voted to take care of people in our community that are sick, have a sick child or maybe have experienced a life-altering event.”
Walker listed the criteria to be part of the group’s Blessing Program to be: the recipient must be a working member of the community at the time of injury/illness and not live in government housing.
“We are looking after our working people in our community that helps us to pull off Back to the Strip each year,” said Walker. “Right now, we have 13 families we are helping. Two are juvenile, nine have cancer. These people really need what we’re doing as well. The reason we changed what we were doing is because it feels like we have gotten Meals on Wheels to a very good spot and its time to share the love with individuals in our community who need help. We all know sometimes the middle class gets looked over.”
According to Walker, the group uses the funding to pay light and water bills for the families it helps, gas cards for the individuals battling cancer and having to commute for treatment as well as provide groceries to them.
“We want you to know we are still looking after our community,” Walker said. “We’re trying to take care of the ones who need it the most, and we could not do that without everyone’s support, including you all and the City of McMinnville.”
Raven Young with Main Street McMinnville (MSM) expressed the organization could not continue to function without assistance from the City of McMinnville. “Without support of the city, a lot of the events we hold downtown would have to either not happen or we would have to try to figure out a different way to make it happen,” Young said. According to Young, much of the organization's perceived fluidity comes from timing with Main Street Live and an account the group uses for grant-matching funds. When the application is sent in, she explained it is usually around the time MSM receives its sponsorship funding and the money has not yet been moved to pay for the talent and other costs associated with hosting the concert series. Grant-matching funds are used for ventures such as a recent façade improvement project for downtown businesses.
Young listed printed maps for downtown businesses and audio guide tours to highlight historical buildings. “All of those things cost money. Those are just some of the new initiatives we are intending to work on this year if we have the funding,” Young said. “The little extra things we are able to do during events downtown are possible because we have support from the City to have our operating costs covered.”
Senior Center Executive Director Lana Hillis spoke on behalf of her organization and asked the Board once again to consider giving the center the full funding requested.
“We had our board meeting this past week and we’re not able to set a budget because we don’t know what our funding is going to be yet, but I can tell you right now, if you leave the funding at what you’re set to give us, I’m going to lose an employee,” said Hillis. “We were on a skeleton crew and I work many, many hours. I probably average 84 hours a week working. I don’t get paid for that, but when I move to a facility that is 17,000 square feet, I don’t know how many more times I can split myself in half. I don’t know where I would even begin to cut. Guys, I am out of time. If I could get 48 hours in a day, I wouldn’t be up here asking.”
Alderman Keri Morton, who serves on the Senior Center’s Board, motioned to approve the nonprofit’s request for $30,000 for this year’s budget and Alderman Deitra Dunlap seconded. Originally, the Senior Center stood to receive $28,500 in totality if both halves of funding were received.
“The reason I support giving them this funding this year, and I just want everyone to understand, just because we do something this year, doesn’t mean we always will do it or we will never do it,” said Morton. “What I look at is I understand they’re in transition mode right now. I don’t go as often as I should, being on the Board, but I see the work and effort they put into this. I only see their facility growing. My opinion is we need to allow them to grow. We’re going to see them make more money next year and, if we need to back off next year, we can.”
Morton explained the Board had managed to bring a once-massive deficit down to something more manageable by trimming where necessary and allocating funds to divisions of the city body most in need, such as firefighters and paving of roads. “I’m not a frivolous spender on anything,” said Morton. “I just know, with the Senior Center’s meals, what it means to them. They can’t grow where they are.”
The Senior Center is expected to complete its move to the Three Star Mall in the coming weeks, where it will begin its 20-year lease through the county for $1,500 per month in rent. The typical going rate for rent at the mall is $1 per square foot, making for a $15,500 break on rental fee for the nonprofit. Additionally, the center has been responsible for the renovation of the space which necessitated a bank loan and $443,000 remains due to be paid. Its building near the Westwood area is on the market for somewhere in the neighborhood of $800,000 and Hillis reports the income generated from its prospective sale would be used to pay off debts accrued from the loan and existing balance on the thrift store building. Anything leftover will be placed in a trust and it will be used to pay rent to the county.
“We’re pretty sure we know what our reserves are. Everett Brock always said ‘Find the money’ – well, where are we going to ‘find the money’?” asked Alderman Stacey Harvey. “What are we going to cut? We’re going to have to cut something to find the money.”
“During our finance committee meetings, we were watching that number very closely to try and stay under what we could spend,” said Kirby. “We did as well as we could, I felt like.”
City Administrator Nolan Ming revealed if all three non-profits were given the requested funding, the city would have a deficit of $11,298. If only MSM and the Senior Center were given funding, Ming explained, it would leave the budget in the black and would require nothing to be cut.
“Given that no one showed up from Meals on Wheels today, I would be perfectly happy with that,” said Stacey of the second option.
As the budget received its first read in its pre-existing form, City Attorney Tim Pirtle explained it would need to be amended and read in next Tuesday’s meeting and no true voting would be done until then. The Board ultimately voted on each individual nonprofit to determine if it was satisfied with the changes.
Morton’s motion to approve the recommendation of Senior Center’s $30,000 passed unanimously. Stacey motioned and Morton seconded to give MSM $30,000 in addition to the $5,000 already suggested previously, for a total of $35,000. The motion was seconded by Morton and also passed without opposition. Morton motioned to retain the decision to provide no funding to Meals on Wheels and Stacey seconded. The Board voted to recommend the measure without opposition.
The budget amendments must pass its second read to be final and approved. It is expected to be on the agenda for Tuesday’s regularly scheduled Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting.
