TARBORO —
Two youth development centers in Lenoir County narrowly escaped the chopping block last week, but the Edgecombe Youth Development Center was not so lucky.
That’s because the budget approved by lawmakers kept funding in place for the two center’s in Kinston, but trimmed $1.7 million needed to keep the Edgecombe facility, located in Rocky Mount, open. The budget passed by a vote of 71-45; with all Republicans house members and five Democrats supporting it. Rep. Joe Tolson (D-Edgecombe) voted against it.
Gov. Beverly Perdue (D) said she has yet to make up her mind if she will veto the budget or let it become law. Perdue vetoed the budget passed a year ago, but lawmakers overrode it.
The Edgecombe facility was opened four years ago and cost about $6 million to build.
Director Sarah Taylor said, “We are very saddened by this decision. Although we all understand the need to reduce costs in state government, and I don’t have a problem with that, the fact we know the value of this kind of intense treatment makes it a very difficult thing to accept.”
Rep. Alice Bordsen (D-Alamance), said the pro-Lenoir County budget was passed to “placate” Kinston’s lame-duck Republican representative, Stephen LaRoque.
The spending plan, now awaiting action in the Senate, would effectively close the Edgecombe Youth Development Center. As a result, the 28 young men and women it houses would be transferred elsewhere and the 57 employees either terminated or transferred.
They may end up in either of the two Kinston facilities that dodged the budget bullet, at either the Dobbs Farm or the Lenoir Youth Development Center.
Harsh battle lines were drawn last week between LaRoque and Bordsen, on whether to eliminate funding for one of the three centers in Lenoir and Edgecombe counties to help balance the $20.3 billion budget.
After two days of heated debate on the House floor, representatives — in a 73-46 vote — sided with LaRoque over Bordsen and the Edgecombe YDC lost in the name of $1.7 million in savings.
“This was done to placate Rep. LaRoque, who’s not coming back and is being scrutinized for ethical challenges,” Bordsen said. Federal investigators in January began looking into how federal grant money was handled at LaRoque’s two Kinston-based economic development non-profits — the East Carolina Development Company and Piedmont Development Company.
In determining which youth development center to close, Bordsen said the legislature should have “split the penny,” shuttered the oldest — Dobbs Farm — and sent the 18 boys and girls housed there to either of the state’s two newest facilities, Lenoir and Edgecombe.
The Mebane lawyer who currently co-chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Justice and Public Safety described the Dobbs Farm center as a “ghost town,” adding that its facilities were “old,” “dark” and “not suitable” for today’s youth.
“Most of the buildings are not used and many of them have their windows boarded up,” said Bordsen. “You can only imagine what a young person who has been removed from their home and put into a custodial situation must think when they are driven into that facility.”
LaRoque argued for continued funding of the Dobbs Farm and Lenoir Youth Development Center because the two share a campus, use some of the same facilities, such as the kitchen, and are more “cost-efficient” than Edgecombe.
“It’s not one of those things that I am against Edgecombe,” LaRoque said. “It’s just when it comes down to dollars and cents it makes more sense to keep the two centers in Lenoir County open.”
“By taking these actions, we are saving taxpayers money and maximizing our state’s limited resources,” LaRoque added.
Bordsen disagreed, saying the long-term impacts of the cut would devastate a county reeling from a 14 percent unemployment rate, further complicate the consolidation process at the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and slow the state’s effort to raise the age for juvenile jurisdiction from 16 to 18.
Bordsen originally supported the Department of Public Safety’s request to have no facilities managed under its Division of Juvenile Justice be cut. After representatives insisted one must be cut, she went to her fallback, which was to cut Dobbs.
“The Department of Public Safety supports the governor’s budget, which had no closures of Juvenile Justice facilities,” said Pamela Walker, spokesperson for the state agency that includes the divisions of Juvenile Justice and Adult Correction.
Walker said it would be “premature” for any staff of hers to say any more as there are still several steps to go in the budget process.
“We have no way of knowing for certain what may or may not be included in the final budget,” Walker said.
Closure of the Edgecombe YDC would make it the second facility of its kind to close this biennium. Samarkand, a large facility in Moore County, had to shut its doors before the Department of Public Safety had time to “repurpose” it.
“This is a newly consolidated department that had to start functioning sooner than we should have asked them,” Bordsen said. “They don’t even know what they own and they need time to do a complete inventory of all of their properties and determine which ones suit the core purposes of its divisions.”
Bordsen said reconciling two dramatically different divisions in one new department quickly has proved to be a challenge.
She said the Edgecombe facility, if closed, could reopen in the future but that it would be difficult because after the process of closing and eliminating or relocating an employee, it hard to recreate or bring back a position.
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