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Saturday, January 12, 2013 • Whidbey News-Times
Contract snafu could extend group’s control of Greenbank Farm More time needed to comply with $1.5 million grant By NATHAN WHALEN Staff reporter
Justin Burnett / Whidbey News-Times
Cathie Espes, a recipient of Central Whidbey Hearts and Hammers, proudly shows off the organization’s sticker on the back of her wheelchair. The nonprofit group is seeking applications for 2013. The deadline is Jan. 31.
Hearts and Hammers looking for homeowners who need help By JUSTIN BURNETT Staff reporter
Cathie Espes lives alone. She’s 68 years old, is legally blind and is confined to a wheelchair. Life isn’t easy for her. Everyday things, from getting a midnight snack to simply reading the day’s mail, are real challenges. More difficult chores, like cleaning her home’s gutters? Impossible. Yet, Espes likely has some of the cleanest gutters on the block. Her house has a fresh coat of paint, she has a new toilet and the thick carpet that once made getting around in her wheelchair a regular nightmare has been replaced by smooth floors. Even the pesky closet door that refused to stay on its track has been fixed. But, perhaps most impressive of all, everything was done for free, or rather, for nothing more than the cost of friendship. “It brings tears to my eyes and gets me all choked up just thinking about it,” Espes said. Espes is one of many residents whose lives have been made a little bit easier by Central Whidbey Hearts and Hammers, an all-volunteer organization made up solely of people within the community – friends, colleagues and neighbors. It was established five years ago as an off-shoot of its sister organization in South Whidbey, which was founded in 1994. It was the first Hearts and Hammers in the United States. Today, the nonprofit and its service
In fact, the whole model have spread to idea is for the Hearts four other states across “We have had people and Hammers spirit the country, includwho were volunteers to strengthen neighing Dallas; Pittsburgh; bors while building the Twin Cities in one year and neighborhoods of Minnesota; and recipients another,” shared responsibility. Willowick, Ohio. Bill Skubi, board member, All the work is The idea behind the Central Whidbey Hearts and Hammers done on the first nonprofit, with it’s motto Saturday in May. of “Neighbors helping Group members are Neighbors,” was to help people in the community who are hoping to do more than ever and will unable, for one reason or another, to be accepting project applications until complete small home projects, said Bill Jan. 31. To qualify, applicants must own Skubi, a member of Central Whidbey’s board of directors and the organiza- their homes within the Coupeville School District and be unable to physition’s informal spokesman. “People say, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to cally or financially manage the work on have Christmas all year long,” Skubi their own. Projects should be health said. “Well, this is kind of Christmas and safety related and be able to be completed in a single day. in May.” To apply, call 360-333-6654, email The model shouldn’t be mistaken as being focused solely on assisting cwheartsandhammers@gmail.com or the very poor. Hearts and Hammers visit www.centralwhidbeyheartsandham considers helping anyone who is strug- mers.com. Espes said she’s extremely grategling, whether it be with finances, physical handicaps, old age or all of ful to the organization and shows her appreciation with a little free advertisthe above. People may simply be having a ing. Last year, she decorated the back rough year and need a little help get- of her wheelchair with a Hearts and ting things done, Skubi said. “We have had people who were vol- Hammers sticker and jumps at the unteers one year and recipients anoth- chance to tell people all about the group when they ask about it. er,” he said. “There is never a day that I don’t go Last year, more than 100 volunteers assisted 22 homeowners, repairing into my (house) and think of Hearts roofs and decks, building wheelchair and Hammers,” she said. “The whole outfit is truly a godsend ramps, painting, doing yard work and for people like me who don’t have the pitching in where ever they could. “It has a real barn-raising feel to it,” resources to get this stuff done,” she said. Skubi said.
A discrepancy with two different contracts could extend the Greenbank Farm Management Group’s agreement with the Port of Coupeville to oversee the publicly owned farm by more than one year. At issue is the management group’s lease with the port — which expires March 31, 2014 — and the management group’s contract with the then-known state Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development — which is fulfilled at the earliest June 2015. The state agency, which eventually became the state Department of Commerce, gave the management group a $1.5 million grant in 2003 that funded construction of a new building at the Greenbank Farm. One of the contract clauses states that any buildings constructed using state funds have to be “held and used” by the Greenbank Farm Management Group for a period of at least 10 years from the date the building is occupied, which took place in June 2005. If the management group doesn’t comply with the contract, then it would have to repay the $1.5 million principal plus interest going back to when the contract was signed. Michael Stansbury, in a letter to the Port of Coupeville, described the difference in contract dates as a “mutual mistake.” “It’s not reasonable that both parties would intentionally adopt a provision in their lease that directly and immediately violates the grant contract that is the source of $1.5 million of improvements to the farm, benefiting both parties, where the direct result of that violation is the loss of those benefits,” Stansbury said in the letter. Port commissioner Laura Blankenship, who was the manager of the Greenbank Farm at the time of the contract, agreed. Everybody involved in negotiating the contract was working in good faith. “I don’t think anyone at the time thought there was a discrepancy,” Blankenship
said Thursday afternoon. The discrepancy in the two contracts was discovered by the Executive Planning Group, which is an eightmember volunteer group appointed by the Port of Coupeville, that spent the past six months researching and writing recommendations about how the farm should operate after the management group’s contract ends. That group recommended that the management group’s contract shouldn’t be extended and the Port of Coupeville should look for requests for proposal for an entity to manage the farm after the current agreement expires. The volunteer group stated in the report that if the management group’s lease were extended, then the recommendations in the report will be less relevant if not outdated. “The transition planning process will be considered by many to have been a waste of time and effort,” the report stated. It looks like, however, that the management group’s current agreement with the port will have to be extended by at least 14 months. In an email to the News-Times, a spokeswoman for the Washington State Department of Commerce, confirmed that the management group must remain in its current position until June 2015. Further, if the group was displaced for any reason, then the department of commerce would consult with the state attorney general’s office to determine whether or not to recapture money under terms of the contract. Patton said the port’s attorney is going to examine the contract as well. He noted that the Greenbank Farm Management Group offered a solution of simply extending the current contract through June of 2015. He said he owes a debt of gratitude to the planning group for discovering the discrepancy and he doesn’t want to see the management group get into any “hot water” with the state. While attorneys review the contracts and discover how best to proceed, work developing a transition plan is on hold for now. He wants the issue resolved soon. If the management group’s contract ends in 2014, then he would like to advertise requests for proposals this summer.