Birch Grove Foundation (BGF) Board Member Coralyn Koschinska came before the Schroeder town board on Tuesday, November 10 ready to answer some questions for the board and to clear the air between the two groups.
At Schroeder’s October meeting the board voted to reject giving BGF $2,500. That was the sum requested from the township by the Foundation last winter. When it came to a vote at the township annual meeting in March, Schroeder residents voted 38-26 in favor of giving the donation to the Foundation.
“The residents of Schroeder voted in favor of supporting us at the annual meeting in March,” said Koschinska. “They said yes to supporting Birch Grove Foundation. If there are rumors being spread about us, innuendos or untruths, it’s difficult for the board because they don’t know what they are. They need to be cleared up,” she added.
“What makes you think there was anything insidious about this decision?” asked Schroeder Treasurer Alicia Kangas.
“The community voted for us in March and you seemed to be behind us, so something had to have changed for you to have you make the decision you made,” said Koschinska.
Schroeder Chair Tina McKeever said, “The biggest thing for us is all the chaos that has recently taken place. Your director quit and your assistant director was let go. In March things looked good. It seemed like you were going in a good direction. And then all of this took place.”
Koschinska said that BGF director Caroline Wood, “felt her job was unsustainable due to funding. Her assistant didn’t want anything to do with being a manager. She could also only work a limited amount of hours. When we asked her to be a manager she said no. “Since then we have brought in Brenda Nelson Moline to manage and Nancy Iverson as a parttime office manager. At the moment we are fully staffed.
“And I want you to know that even when we were going through all of that turmoil we always ran our programs,” said Koschinska.
Chair McKeever mentioned that when the Foundation and Birch Grove Community School worked together on fundraisers, both had enough money to operate and didn’t come to the townships for donations. She asked what had changed to cause the two to separate.
“First of all, the Birch Grove Foundation has never been against Birch Grove School,” said Koschinska. “Five years ago or so the school came to us and said they wanted to do their own fundraisers. They asked us not to do fundraisers and we agreed, but you can’t live on air. We need funds to operate.”
McKeever asked if the school and Foundation could join again and run fundraisers together and Koschinska said she thought that was a possibility.
Koschinska reminded the board that for 30 years the township used to give the Foundation $3,500.
“What you approved in March was $2,500, which was less than you used to give,” she said.
Koschinska said that this past year both Lutsen ($11,000) and Tofte ($11,000 plus $2,500) gave money to the Birch Grove Foundation at their March annual meetings. “What should we do as a board for the people of Schroeder who want to use the Community Center when you aren’t willing to support us? We [BGF board] are left with an uneasy, difficult situation. I’m going to leave this up to you. I think you can change this.”
Rick Anderson, who serves on the township’s Road & Bridge Committee, was in the audience and he asked to speak. “It seems like you are pitting us against Lutsen and Tofte. Lutsen doesn’t commit money to the Tofte July 4th fireworks. Each township does what it can, gives where it’s able to give. But we can’t give to everything.”
Kangas added, “In the last few years everyone thought they could come to the town boards and get money like they were financial institutions.”
McKeever said the town board was also unsure about what the Foundation was going to do with the money, and noted that in its request for funds it said dollars would go to “development and implementation.”
“How do you define that?” she asked, adding that the board would like to be told specifically what the money would be used for.
“You can tell us where you want the money spent. If it’s on senior lunches, that’s where we will spend it,” said Koschinska.
McKeever asked Koschinska to come to the township’s December board meeting and bring back a resolution specifying—in dollar amounts per program—exactly where the $2,500 would be spent and the board would reconsider its motion.
Koschinska agreed to the request, adding, “We will be very specific with where the money will be spent.”
“Everybody needs to start working together. We can’t keep butting heads like this,” said Tina McKeever. “We are heading down a certain path of destruction.”
“At this point, there is no cohesiveness in the West End. We need to get it back,” said Koschinska.
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