The Paddock Lake Village Board voted unanimously to extend the lease for The Sharing Center another 12 months with a 10 percent rent increase.
The relief agency occupies a former medical office building just south of Village Hall that the village purchased when its last occupants moved to new quarters elsewhere in the village.
The vote came after a lengthy executive session that also included other business.
In open session before the closed session, Lynn Biese-Carroll, The Sharing Center’s executive director, asked that the village not raise the rent, as the village has done each of the last three years.
Biese-Carroll pointed out the center has approached or is in the process of approaching each Western Kenosha County municipality for help meeting overhead costs. Salem contributed $5,000, Bristol $3,000 and Twin Lakes $750. Wheatland has not acted on their request and Brighton, Paris and Randall have not yet been approached.
Paddock Lake has not been approached since they are the holders of the lease for the center’s headquarters, Biese-Carroll said.
“I’m here to ask Paddock Lake to not write a check, but to stay our rent increase,” Biese-Carroll said.
But she also said she felt an obligation to the communities that did contribute to ask Paddock Lake for no rent increase.
“I could not go back to the other municipalities that donated in good faith if I did not object to Paddock Lake raising our rent,” Biese-Carroll said.
Before the executive session, village President Marlene Goodson asked interim village administrator Tim Popanda to share figures that showed village taxpayers had subsidized rent for The Sharing Center to the tune of about $50,000 over the last three years, when the rent paid by the center is compared to market rates.
Goodson said the village wants the center to be successful, but felt other municipalities should contribute more to the center’s costs.
“…We do need the the other communities to step up,” Goodson said.
Last year, The Sharing Center paid $1,100 per month rent. The new amount will be $1,210.
I’m not sure when the shift occurred. The shift I am talking about is the change in the funding model for the Sharing Center. I thought the Sharing Center was a CHARITY, where people and/or organizations gave when and if they were able to. It seems that now, we have a funding model where the various municipalities that have residents served by the Sharing Center are EXPECTED to pay for that service. I for one don’t like the new attitude displayed by the change in leadership, funding models and expectations at the Sharing Center. I used to give to the Sharing Center. I will no longer do so, now that it is expected that my tax dollars are going there in the form of “purchase of services” and other forms of gathering funds other than strict charity.