The West Side Community Center is set to receive new restrooms through community development block grant [CDBG] funding.
The CDBG grant program is run by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD]. The city received some CDBG money in 2009 that has not yet been spent, city manager Terence Reidy said.
The boys’ and girls’ bathrooms in the gym area of the Community Center would be refurbished, Reidy said. City engineer Joe Cunha will seek estimates from local contractors and select the lowest bidder.
The decision to redo the bathrooms was announced at the Oct. 17 council meeting. At the previous meeting on Oct. 3, members of the West Side Community Center’s board spoke up about a perceived lack of attention paid to the center.
Rev. John D. Bradley, president of the Asbury Park and Neptune Ministerial Alliance and a member of the center’s board of trustees, said the center does not have enough funds to remain open on its own. He also asked why the city had not moved forward to spend a $140,000 CDBG grant yet.
“We need to get the crimes out of the street and we need to have a place for people to come to,” he said. “I ask as a minister and chief of churches, when are you going to do something?”
Mayor Ed Johnson responded that the city was moving forward with the restroom renovations, then “moving out into the auditorium … We’re moving as quickly as we can,” Johnson said.
Deputy Mayor John Loffredo asked if the West Side Community Center’s board was working to raise money.
“God helps those who help themselves,” Loffredo said. “I want to know what the board has done to raise money for themselves … We’re not against helping anybody, but show us what you’re doing.”
Another member of the Asbury and Neptune Ministerial Alliance spoke at the Oct. 3 meeting, as well.
“Everything is on the East Side and nothing is on the West Side,” he said. “It seems the West Side is neglected. The community center has been there over 70 years.”
Johnson disputed the statement that nothing is being done on the West Side, noting the more than 20 new homes built by Interfaith Neighbors recently, as well as the new senior center and business incubator in the Springwood Center and the upcoming new park on Springwood Avenue.
“For you to sit there and say nothing’s going on on the West Side is absolutely incorrect,” Johnson said.
Paul McEverly of Interfaith Neighbors also spoke about the West Side Community Center at the Oct. 3 meeting, saying his nonprofit group has provided funds to install new heating and air-conditioning for the gym there, as well as new heating for the main building.
