A place for kids to grow
One day can't tell a whole story, and one story can't do justice to a whole organization. Especially when that organization is the Boys & Girls Club.
But with Sunday's and Monday's article and photos, The Press tried to give you a sense of what many local children experience in a day at the Boys & Girls Club of Kootenai County. Now, why would we go and do a thing like that?
Full disclosure: Press editorial board members are big fans of Boys & Girls Club, having known friends and even family members whose lives were dramatically and positively impacted by the many hours they spent in these special places as kids. We see the same phenomenon happening daily right here, too. But that's not the whole story.
The Boys & Girls Club of Kootenai County, bursting at the seams in its Post Falls location and even with temporary help during the school year at Sorensen Magnet School in Coeur d'Alene, is considering permanent expansion into the Lake City.
In Post Falls, legal counsel recommended that the school district could not directly lease property for the new Boys & Girls Club to be built. Instead, their lawyers said, the city needed to acquire the property from the school district, then serve as the leasing entity. And that's what happened, with Boys & Girls Club acquiring the property for its building at the rate of $1 a year.
For its proposed expansion at Lakes Magnet Middle School in Coeur d'Alene, the Boys & Girls Club hopes to deal directly with the school district in an arrangement otherwise similar to Post Falls. In the Cd'A scenario, the district would lease a third of an acre to the club for $1 a year. On that property and at the club's expense, a Boys & Girls Club facility would be built and shared with the school district. As a likely bonus, the city of Coeur d'Alene could also use club space for its always popular recreation programs.
With no taxpayer dollars on the line for another Boys & Girls Club in Kootenai County, the club and district will seek a judge's permission for dealing directly with one another before approaching their separate boards for approval to proceed. Based on Monday night's public hearing - in which nobody spoke out against the proposal - we believe the community as a whole shares the same sense of support for this project as we do. And that bodes well for the children of Kootenai County.
A place for
kids to grow
One day can't tell a whole story, and one story can't do justice to a whole organization. Especially when that organization is the Boys & Girls Club.
But with Sunday's and Monday's article and photos, The Press tried to give you a sense of what many local children experience in a day at the Boys & Girls Club of Kootenai County. Now, why would we go and do a thing like that?
Full disclosure: Press editorial board members are big fans of Boys & Girls Club, having known friends and even family members whose lives were dramatically and positively impacted by the many hours they spent in these special places as kids. We see the same phenomenon happening daily right here, too. But that's not the whole story.
The Boys & Girls Club of Kootenai County, bursting at the seams in its Post Falls location and even with temporary help during the school year at Sorensen Magnet School in Coeur d'Alene, is considering permanent expansion into the Lake City.
In Post Falls, legal counsel recommended that the school district could not directly lease property for the new Boys & Girls Club to be built. Instead, their lawyers said, the city needed to acquire the property from the school district, then serve as the leasing entity. And that's what happened, with Boys & Girls Club acquiring the property for its building at the rate of $1 a year.
For its proposed expansion at Lakes Magnet Middle School in Coeur d'Alene, the Boys & Girls Club hopes to deal directly with the school district in an arrangement otherwise similar to Post Falls. In the Cd'A scenario, the district would lease a third of an acre to the club for $1 a year. On that property and at the club's expense, a Boys & Girls Club facility would be built and shared with the school district. As a likely bonus, the city of Coeur d'Alene could also use club space for its always popular recreation programs.
With no taxpayer dollars on the line for another Boys & Girls Club in Kootenai County, the club and district will seek a judge's permission for dealing directly with one another before approaching their separate boards for approval to proceed. Based on Monday night's public hearing - in which nobody spoke out against the proposal - we believe the community as a whole shares the same sense of support for this project as we do. And that bodes well for the children of Kootenai County.