Nov 2 2021
Central
Appalachia Empowerment Zone (CAEZ) has had financial woes for
a decade or more. That changed Oct 16th when they sold their
Valley Fork School building and property for $176,000 to Cam
Stewart. Another bidder during the auction was Roger Hanshaw
who came up short.
With the 10% deposit in hand, the CAEZ finally has some loot to make up for the drought.
8 years ago or so, a financial audit showed false inventory on the books. It wasn't fraud back then but nearly, a bunch of old assets on the books which made them look like they were doing better than the reality. After losing about half their value, the Board got rid of that audit firm.
There, problem solved.
As a non profit, CAEZ is required to make public an IRS 990 form, a financial form showing assets, debts, and holdings. During the Nov 2nd Zoom meeting, again, the assets are off. This time around, the CAEZ are claiming to have $994,000 in assets which included $55,000 that ain't really theirs plus some issue with housing that's not really available to them. Again, not really a cover up. Instead, there's a record keeping issue and a dispute on who that $55,000 really belongs to.
Originally, 26 years ago when Al Gore came up with an idea for a people run agency funded by the Feds, CAEZ had a service area in portions of four counties and the entire County Clay. Clayberry in its entirety was the center piece for CAEZ due to our utter poverty.
One of those counties is Fayette. During this meeting, it was mentioned that they had received a letter from the Fayette County Commission which stated, they wanted to no longer participate in the organization. That's a sure sign of decay and dwindling interest.
That's a shame because Fayette representation , also the furthest driving time, has the strongest participation at meetings. Still attending meetings, Fayette County's Michael Martin stated, he feels, the life of CAEZ will be over in a couple more years.
Another sign of a diminished future, there are several Board openings and has been that way for many months, years actually. For Clayberry, 2 slots have been open for ages.
"Life"? Truth is, CAEZ has not participated, grown, started, any new projects in many years.
If you've ever sat in a Zoom meeting, you know, all the little mug shots show up on your puter screen and when someone is talking, that small picture turns larger. For this meeting, a Dawn Shultz kept trying to get her words into the conversation but without luck. No one could hear her offerings. Not sure who Dawn Shultz is but it must have been frustrating for sure.
Speaking of frustration... Clayberry is currently represented by County Commissioner Fran King with Connie Kinder, and Linda Rhodes as citizen reps. None of those attend meetings on a regular basis. That's a shame since Zoom meetings don't even require driving to a meeting. Nope, just sit at home in your p-jamas and get the volunteer job done.
Back to the Valley Fork building....
CAEZ always charged high dollar rates (almost without exception) to any group wanting to rent space in the poorly heated and cooled place. Recently, Cam Stewart, a contractor, rented space for his growing company. CAEZ charged him $580 per month. Now with Mr Stewart owning the place and CAEZ needing office space, what comes around goes around.
When asked about the CAEZ renting space there, Stewart came back with, sure and I will charge you just what you charged me, $580 per month plus utilities. That was a sharp pay back move by Cam. Couldn't help but giggle.
Lots of time was spent on handling utilities, when who pays what. They also have lots of old furnishings there and something has to be done with that stuff.
Switching gears, over to their campground at Dundon....
Three men want to rent the entire Lodge building for the Winter month, the off season. Behind the scenes there has been turmoil. Some of the Boardster thinks making $$$, $30,000, is a bad idea and bucked the notion of having renters there during the off season. Keeping in mind that costly electric, wawa, and heating has to paid at the Lodge no matter what, how could such a no brainer get into murky wawa?
It got worse during this meeting.
Up for discussion was whether the renters (workers on the BC&G RR rebuild) could use the building's laundry room and kitchen? How dumb! The CAEZ would come out way ahead with fresh new $$$ and they're arguing about the guys making coffee and washing their clothes. Dumb Dumb Dumb.
On the subject of dumb, over at the campground, a small carport shelter , pavilion, was completed earlier this year. The shelter can be rented for receptions, weddings, etc. Since opening in 2021, there have been no problems at the place. For the last four meetings, CAEZ has been wrangling to come up with usage rules and regulations to make pavilion use tighter. For this meeting, a big rule list was presented that was so convoluted to be unreadable. It's back to the drawing board for the struggling agency.
Like a kid with a new pocket full of money, CAEZ is quickly spending the new Valley Fork $$$. Long delayed maintenance like a rotting sub floor were talked about. As well as much needed ceiling fans and findings new furinshing.
Also, when the campground's long time volunteer maintenance folks (Steve and Judy) left, they took with them stuff like the TV, tables, and seating which belonged to them.
Let's talk about Steve and Judy. They did everything from cutting grass, weed whacking, building, rebuilding, hosting duties for campers, and cleaning up the Lodge on a daily basis. As true volunteers, those kind of folks are hard to find. We heard the CAEZ make No kind of effort to says thanks. Not even a piece of paper saying thanks.
An hour and a half into the Nov 2nd meeting, and with $$$ to spend, the Zoom meeting was still going strong. You could tell by the looks of the Boardsters on the screen, they were all worn out. Michael Martin repeatedly asked if that takes care of everything... it wasn't .
Around 7:30, we bailed out of the online gathering and called it quits.
All in all, it was a good assembly for the struggling non profit.
As a parting shot, with $176,000 to their name, that nest egg could keep them in business for many months more, maybe the couple years as mentioned by Mr Martin. It's not easy shutting down such a group since they also have some rental properties like the low income Clay Apartments in downtown.
The biggy is the Dundon Campground which is located along the new ERTS State Park. Due to that location, when the State buys the place, there's some more $$$ that could lengthen the long slow demise of the CAEZ.
AW
With the 10% deposit in hand, the CAEZ finally has some loot to make up for the drought.
8 years ago or so, a financial audit showed false inventory on the books. It wasn't fraud back then but nearly, a bunch of old assets on the books which made them look like they were doing better than the reality. After losing about half their value, the Board got rid of that audit firm.
There, problem solved.
As a non profit, CAEZ is required to make public an IRS 990 form, a financial form showing assets, debts, and holdings. During the Nov 2nd Zoom meeting, again, the assets are off. This time around, the CAEZ are claiming to have $994,000 in assets which included $55,000 that ain't really theirs plus some issue with housing that's not really available to them. Again, not really a cover up. Instead, there's a record keeping issue and a dispute on who that $55,000 really belongs to.
Originally, 26 years ago when Al Gore came up with an idea for a people run agency funded by the Feds, CAEZ had a service area in portions of four counties and the entire County Clay. Clayberry in its entirety was the center piece for CAEZ due to our utter poverty.
One of those counties is Fayette. During this meeting, it was mentioned that they had received a letter from the Fayette County Commission which stated, they wanted to no longer participate in the organization. That's a sure sign of decay and dwindling interest.
That's a shame because Fayette representation , also the furthest driving time, has the strongest participation at meetings. Still attending meetings, Fayette County's Michael Martin stated, he feels, the life of CAEZ will be over in a couple more years.
Another sign of a diminished future, there are several Board openings and has been that way for many months, years actually. For Clayberry, 2 slots have been open for ages.
"Life"? Truth is, CAEZ has not participated, grown, started, any new projects in many years.
If you've ever sat in a Zoom meeting, you know, all the little mug shots show up on your puter screen and when someone is talking, that small picture turns larger. For this meeting, a Dawn Shultz kept trying to get her words into the conversation but without luck. No one could hear her offerings. Not sure who Dawn Shultz is but it must have been frustrating for sure.
Speaking of frustration... Clayberry is currently represented by County Commissioner Fran King with Connie Kinder, and Linda Rhodes as citizen reps. None of those attend meetings on a regular basis. That's a shame since Zoom meetings don't even require driving to a meeting. Nope, just sit at home in your p-jamas and get the volunteer job done.
Back to the Valley Fork building....
CAEZ always charged high dollar rates (almost without exception) to any group wanting to rent space in the poorly heated and cooled place. Recently, Cam Stewart, a contractor, rented space for his growing company. CAEZ charged him $580 per month. Now with Mr Stewart owning the place and CAEZ needing office space, what comes around goes around.
When asked about the CAEZ renting space there, Stewart came back with, sure and I will charge you just what you charged me, $580 per month plus utilities. That was a sharp pay back move by Cam. Couldn't help but giggle.
Lots of time was spent on handling utilities, when who pays what. They also have lots of old furnishings there and something has to be done with that stuff.
Switching gears, over to their campground at Dundon....
Three men want to rent the entire Lodge building for the Winter month, the off season. Behind the scenes there has been turmoil. Some of the Boardster thinks making $$$, $30,000, is a bad idea and bucked the notion of having renters there during the off season. Keeping in mind that costly electric, wawa, and heating has to paid at the Lodge no matter what, how could such a no brainer get into murky wawa?
It got worse during this meeting.
Up for discussion was whether the renters (workers on the BC&G RR rebuild) could use the building's laundry room and kitchen? How dumb! The CAEZ would come out way ahead with fresh new $$$ and they're arguing about the guys making coffee and washing their clothes. Dumb Dumb Dumb.
On the subject of dumb, over at the campground, a small carport shelter , pavilion, was completed earlier this year. The shelter can be rented for receptions, weddings, etc. Since opening in 2021, there have been no problems at the place. For the last four meetings, CAEZ has been wrangling to come up with usage rules and regulations to make pavilion use tighter. For this meeting, a big rule list was presented that was so convoluted to be unreadable. It's back to the drawing board for the struggling agency.
Like a kid with a new pocket full of money, CAEZ is quickly spending the new Valley Fork $$$. Long delayed maintenance like a rotting sub floor were talked about. As well as much needed ceiling fans and findings new furinshing.
Also, when the campground's long time volunteer maintenance folks (Steve and Judy) left, they took with them stuff like the TV, tables, and seating which belonged to them.
Let's talk about Steve and Judy. They did everything from cutting grass, weed whacking, building, rebuilding, hosting duties for campers, and cleaning up the Lodge on a daily basis. As true volunteers, those kind of folks are hard to find. We heard the CAEZ make No kind of effort to says thanks. Not even a piece of paper saying thanks.
An hour and a half into the Nov 2nd meeting, and with $$$ to spend, the Zoom meeting was still going strong. You could tell by the looks of the Boardsters on the screen, they were all worn out. Michael Martin repeatedly asked if that takes care of everything... it wasn't .
Around 7:30, we bailed out of the online gathering and called it quits.
All in all, it was a good assembly for the struggling non profit.
As a parting shot, with $176,000 to their name, that nest egg could keep them in business for many months more, maybe the couple years as mentioned by Mr Martin. It's not easy shutting down such a group since they also have some rental properties like the low income Clay Apartments in downtown.
The biggy is the Dundon Campground which is located along the new ERTS State Park. Due to that location, when the State buys the place, there's some more $$$ that could lengthen the long slow demise of the CAEZ.
AW
Zoom shot with Chair Mickey Boggs