Community services organizations operated by YVEDDI in Mount Airy are on the move, which city officials are being asked to assist with financially.
Yadkin Valley Economic Development District Inc. (aka YVEDDI) is relocating to the former location of Mountain Valley Hospice and Palliative Care at 401 Technology Lane, in space of the Ottenweller industrial building.
For years, YVEDDI has operated programs such as Head Start at L.H. Jones Family Resource Center in the old Jones School.
That facility, earlier owned by the county government, was acquired last year by the African-American Historical and Genealogical Society of Surry County, after officials in Dobson attempted to sell the ageing complex due to increasing maintenance costs.
The African-American group is attempting to upgrade the deteriorating former campus on Jones School Road which served black students in the area during the last century before eventually being converted to the resource center operated by YVEDDI.
YVEDDI Executive Director Kathy Payne said during a meeting of the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners Thursday night that the new owner’s resources are “limited.” The African-American Historical and Genealogical Society of Surry County has mounted various fundraisers to support building improvements at the one-time school.
In the meantime its condition prompted the existing occupants to find alternate quarters, which in YVEDDI’s case led to the new location in the front portion of the Ottenweller building.
Unlike the Jones site, an 83-year-old multi-level structure needing extensive maintenance, the building on Technology Lane is one-story and will be much more accessible to YVEDDI users who include senior citizens and others.
Payne said it is hoped the move to the new 16,000-square-foot space can be completed by the end of September.
In the meantime, the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners was asked Thursday night to allocate $50,000 in city funding assistance to help relocate the community services — referred to in YVEDDI documents as “a one-time supplement.”
Those funds would be used to hire a moving company and buy signage, appliances, tables and chairs, along with developing and distributing relocation announcements to the community.
“The money will not be wasted,” said Surry County Commissioner Larry Johnson, who represents the Mount Airy District and accompanied Payne in making the funding request to municipal officials.
While the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners seemed to be in favor of appropriating the $50,000, Mayor Jon Cawley advised Johnson that an official decision will not come until the board’s next meeting on Sept. 21.
Cawley said this conforms to a policy adopted several years ago whereby action is not taken on funding requests during the same meeting when these are received.
Johnson pointed out that the county also is chipping in for the YVEDDI relocation costs in Mount Airy.
The Surry Board of Commissioners was asked to allocate $150,000, and immediately approved two-thirds of that figure, he said.
Johnson added that the space on Technology Lane is being leased on a long-term basis.
A food bank operated by Yokefellow Cooperative Ministry at L.H. Jones Family Resource Center previously relocated to a spot on North South Street.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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