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First 5 panel OKs funds for programs
| Wednesday, Oct 10 2007 7:53 AM
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 9 2007 10:52 PM
Louis Gill Jr. felt deep apprehensions Wednesday as he stood before the nine members of the First 5 Kern Commission.
As the executive director of the Bakersfield Homeless Center, Gill had learned three weeks ago from commission staffers that money for his day care program was going to dry up in a year.
"I was very concerned," he said.
Still, he made his pitch, stressing that his Discovery Depot Child Care Center, which serves 25 infants and toddlers, is the only one licensed in a homeless program in California.
Within minutes, the commission was convinced and unanimously voted to raise the staff recommendation of $262,500 to $320,000, lift the June 30, 2008, cutoff date and consider the possibility of more cash down the road.
All Gill wanted was a second look. He never imagined the across-the-board support from the commission.
"It was gratifying," he said.
That was the temper of the 31/2-hour meeting in which the commission dished out millions to more than 20 programs. More than two dozen people unveiled their hearts at the podium.
"I'm delighted they saw the wisdom in keeping the funding coming for another year," said Bill Phelps, director of the Adolescent Family Life Program at Clinica Sierra Vista.
He received $240,000, which represents 10.5 percent of his budget in a program aimed at helping teenage parents and their children.
Without the money, Phelps said, he would have been forced to lose six of his current staff of 29 case managers.
In other business, the commission began to clean up some administrative chores.
Members agreed to pay the replacement for departing executive director Steve Ladd in a range of $93,732 to $124,453 but preferred to negotiate later the job's health benefits and a severance package.
Apart from Bakersfield Homeless Center, the commission decided to consider funding two programs beyond one-year deadlines.
For example, the Kern County Superintendent of Schools' Teen Parent Child Outreach Project will receive $300,570 and perhaps more later on.
Another one-year hopeful that might get a stay of execution was Clinica Sierra Vista's Medically Vulnerable Infant Program.
Indeed, the commission topped the staff-advised $367,500 and gave the program $395,557.
Most of the contracts approved run for three years. They include:
• Kern County Public Health Department’s Nurse Family Partnership: $1,942,789 over three years
• Henrietta Weill Memorial Child Guidance Clinic: $1,284,849 over three years
• Court Appointed Special Advocates of Kern County: $552,366 over three years
• North of the River Recreation and Park District: $1,208,196 over three years
• Richardson Center, Kern County Superintendent of Schools: $687,849 over three years
• Community Action Partnership of Kern Fatherhood Program: $630,424 over three years
• Indian Wells Valley Family Resource Center: $504,400 over three years
• Kern River Valley Family Resource Center: $577,173 over three years
• Mountain Communities Family Resource Center: $528,630 over three years
• Southeast Bakersfield Neighborhood Partnership: $600,000 over three years
• Wind in the Willows: $364,114 over three years
• West Kern Community College District: $4,940,881 over three years
• San Joaquin Community Hospital: $1,218,240 over three years
• Kern County Public Health Department’s Child Health and Disability Program Dental Component: $2,250,000 over three years
• Kern County Public Health Department’s Kern Access to Children’s Health Program: $750,000 over three years
• Health Net of California Healthy Kids Kern County: $3,300,000 over three years
• Friends of Mercy Foundation Outreach and Enrollment Committee: $255,000 over three years
• Nine “mini-grants” totaling $148,889 for specific injury-prevention items to the Epilepsy Society of Kern County, Arthritis Association Adaptive Aquatics Center, Greenfield Union School District, First Experiences Preschool, Stallion Springs, American Red Cross Kern Chapter, Bike Bakersfield, California Migrant Leadership Council and Bethany Services
Several “School Readiness” projects, which can receive state matching funds, are also slated for reapprovals:
• Arvin Union School District, $1,068,112 over four years
• Bakersfield City School District: $749,836 over four years
• Delano Union School District: $1,080,000 over four years
• Lamont/Vineland School districts: $975,188 over four years
• Bakersfield City Phase II, $317,007 for one year; re-application due next year
• Buttonwillow, $97,634 for one year; re-application due next year
• Greenfield Union, $185,278 for one year; re-application due next year
• Lost Hills/Semitropic, $172,478 for one year; re-application due next year
• Mojave Unified, $159,449 for one year; re-application due next year
• Richland, $163,978 for one year; re-application due next year
• Taft/Maricopa, $170,640 for one year; re-application due next year
• Kern County Superintendent of Schools, School Readiness Administration: $50,000 for one year