Published 10/30/08
In its first year of operation, the Española Teen Technology Center has served 131 teens who have paid 5,532 visits, taken 25 field trips and participated in 79 tutorials. It has also kept 12-year-old Eduardo Perez from smoking marijuana, changed 17-year old Danny Anaya’s attitude and made available adults who 14-year-olds Santana Martinez and Beatriz Guzman trust.
However in the last month, the Center has also had to cut back its programs, cut off field trips indefinitely and scale down plans for the future.
The Center, which is operated by the Los Alamos YMCA, celebrated its one-year anniversary Oct. 21. At the event, teenagers shared their experiences at the Center but Director Ben Sandoval told board members the Center is in dire need of funding to keep open this refuge for Valley teens.
“We’re calling out for support from the community,” Sandoval said. “We’re busting at the seams.”
Currently, the Center is operating with a deficit of about $13,000, Sandoval said. The Center’s financial problems have led the Center to not refill two job vacancies and reduce woodworking and cooking classes to once every other week, he said. Lapidary instructor David Toelardo has even taken a pay cut to keep the class going, Sandoval said. Scholarships that covered the 90 percent of the $40 membership fee for some teens have been reduced to 50 percent and there is only enough for seven members rather than 10 as before.
“We’re not trying to be elaborate,” Sandoval said. “We’re worried because the items get so much use if anything goes down it will have a major impact.”
The budget shortfall has also prevented the Center from expanding its services. Sandoval could use a second van to transport teens from school to the Center, he said.
“A lot of parents are working two or three jobs to make ends meet,” he said. “They want their children here, but they have no way to get them here.”
Sandoval said the Center is in need of a new van, but a United Way grant for $10,000 would only fund half of the cost, Daly said.
The Center felt the effect of cutbacks Oct. 1 when a $75,000 grant from Con Alma was awarded to another organization, Sandoval said.
“We are all in very tough economic times,” Los Alamos YMCA Executive Director Linda Daly said. “Non-profits feel it as we go out and seek funding.”
There are more grants that the Center will apply for, but Daly said she remains concerned about whether the Center can afford to pay staff salaries six months down the line. Daly said the Center is looking to the local business community to help with donations, even if it is in the form of supplies, she said.
Based on expenditures made in September, the Center has the following monthly expenses: $8,000 in salaries and wages, $1,600 for insurance, $250 for utilities, $350 for transportation, $436 for building maintenance and $97 for office expenses.
Sandoval is the only full-time employee at the center and he earns a $36,000 a year salary, he said. The center also employs four part-time employees.
“We’re at a point where we’d like to serve a lot more kids,” Daly said.
The Center receives about $38,000 annually from the city of Española for in-kind services, Sandoval said. The Center leases the city-owned building at 808 Vietnam Veterans Memorial Road for free, and the city covers its utility bills, he said.
The Center is in the process of renewing the lease, which expired in September, Sandoval said. This process is taking longer than expected because in August the city discovered a state statute that requires real estate valued over $25,000 and that is leased or sold at a value not based on an official appraisal to have a detailed explanation available to the public. The statute also states that the terms and condition of a sale or lease must be published twice, beginning three weeks prior to a public bid. The sale or lease would then be finalized 45 days after its adoption via a city ordinance, giving the public time to call for a referendum election. Until that process is followed through the Center is on a month to month contract, Sandoval said.
Gang Intervention
The cuts in classes have been followed by a drop in attendance, Sandoval said. At times the center had up to 61 teens there at one time, but since the cuts, attendance has dropped to as low as 17, Sandoval said.
Twelve-year-old Perez hasn’t let the drop in classes stop him from coming. He said he has been going to the Center since it first opened. Before that he would hang out at the park getting in trouble for things such as throwing rocks at cars, throwing over a port-a-potty and breaking into a concession stand. He said he started smoking cigarettes at the age of 7 and marijuana at 9.
“Since I started coming here I don’t do that stuff anymore,” he said. “They taught me how to respect myself and other people.”
Perez is now content playing computer games at the Center.
Anaya said the Center has become his family.
“I started thinking about things when Ben had talks with me. It changed my life really,” he said. “It helped me grow up. I guess it had to happen eventually.”
Anaya said if it wasn’t for the Center he would have probably joined a gang. He said his old friends are in juvenile hall, one is dead.
He has told friends to come to the center, he said.
“Before I came to the Center I was hesitant, but once I started coming I wanted to be here,” he said. “I think if they would come they would actually like it.”
Sandoval said having a sense of family at the Center is something he tries to instill. The Center has provided them with presentations on preparing for college, sex education and drug and gang intervention.
Martinez said she spends more time at the Center than she does at home. She said Administrative Assistant Rene Sandoval, Ben Sandoval’s wife, has talked to her until 11 p.m. when she needed someone to talk to.
Guzman said she feels like her parents aren’t there for her but the Sandoval’s are.
“If the teen Center wasn’t here I don’t know what I’d do,” she said.
Guzman and Martinez have joined other students to come up with fund-raisers for the Center.
“The goal is to bring the programs back,” Guzman said.