Sunnyside's Promise will shut down
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SUNNYSIDE, Wash. -- Sunnyside's Promise has been front and center in running the community and recreation centers in Sunnyside.
Places Angel Valenica visits every time he can.
"Play basketball, do art projects, watch movies, sometimes play on the Xbox," Angel said.
The program began as a way to offer a healthy and safe environment for Sunnyside's youth, to improve education and 'make dreams come true.'
It also focused on keeping kids away from gangs. But now the program is ending and finding out why depends on who you talk to.
The city says it can't afford it. Workers for Sunnyside's Promise say something else.
We know for sure that the bills for Sunnyside's Promise recently became the sole responsibility of the city. It used to be shared with the Hospital and School District. That's also when the city started taking a closer look at the costs and the focus of Sunnyside's Promise.
Sunnyside's Mayor, Mike Farmer, tells Action News:
"I have questioned dollars and programs. There have been some misunderstandings contractually. The sex trafficking grants and others are not functions of local government."
I took the concerns to the head of Sunnyside's Promise, Director Mark Baysinger.
(KIMA: "The mayor says that he has questioned some of your programs and dollars spent. What do you think he means by that?")
"I probably have no comment on that," Baysinger said.
Baysinger told me he thinks the city wanted a narrow focus on just recreation for the community. He says Promise received federal grants that allowed them to start a domestic human trafficking program at no cost to the city. He says it's possibly a topic the city did not want them involved in.
City officials say now that Sunnyside Promise is out of the picture, the city will be running the community and recreation center and the people using it should notice no difference in how it's being run.
In fact, Sunnyside believes it might actually save money by running the center itself.
But there are concerns things will change when the program goes away altogether.
"It's those that are underprivileged that don't have the resources, and the families who don't have the resources that sometimes kind of slip through the cracks," Baysinger said.
Places Angel Valenica visits every time he can.
"Play basketball, do art projects, watch movies, sometimes play on the Xbox," Angel said.
The program began as a way to offer a healthy and safe environment for Sunnyside's youth, to improve education and 'make dreams come true.'
It also focused on keeping kids away from gangs. But now the program is ending and finding out why depends on who you talk to.
The city says it can't afford it. Workers for Sunnyside's Promise say something else.
We know for sure that the bills for Sunnyside's Promise recently became the sole responsibility of the city. It used to be shared with the Hospital and School District. That's also when the city started taking a closer look at the costs and the focus of Sunnyside's Promise.
Sunnyside's Mayor, Mike Farmer, tells Action News:
"I have questioned dollars and programs. There have been some misunderstandings contractually. The sex trafficking grants and others are not functions of local government."
I took the concerns to the head of Sunnyside's Promise, Director Mark Baysinger.
(KIMA: "The mayor says that he has questioned some of your programs and dollars spent. What do you think he means by that?")
"I probably have no comment on that," Baysinger said.
Baysinger told me he thinks the city wanted a narrow focus on just recreation for the community. He says Promise received federal grants that allowed them to start a domestic human trafficking program at no cost to the city. He says it's possibly a topic the city did not want them involved in.
City officials say now that Sunnyside Promise is out of the picture, the city will be running the community and recreation center and the people using it should notice no difference in how it's being run.
In fact, Sunnyside believes it might actually save money by running the center itself.
But there are concerns things will change when the program goes away altogether.
"It's those that are underprivileged that don't have the resources, and the families who don't have the resources that sometimes kind of slip through the cracks," Baysinger said.
