Aneurin Canham-Clyne Photo
Ronnetta Holmes shows patches and inadequate drains on the roof of the LEAP building.
Patches won’t fix LEAP’s roof. But a new $75,000 grant will.
The grant is coming from the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority (CHEFA). LEAP (Leadership, Education and Athletics in Partnership) is a leading after-school and summer education and rec program for city kids.
On Tuesday, CHEFA’s grants program manager, Betty Sugerman Weintraub, popped in to LEAP’s Jefferson Street main facility to take a look at the work to be done.
Water damage to the roof of the gym .
Ronnetta Holmes, LEAP’s building manager, told her the roof is over 100 years old. It has leaked off and on for over a decade. Patches to the roof generally held off the leaks for a few months at a time, but that water soon found a way down into the building because of inadequate drainage.
Holmes said the worst leaks were in the gym, library, and operations room. The gym floor is warped as a result of the leaks.
A drain next to an undrained puddle on the uneven century-old roof.
“Anytime it rains or snows there’s the potential for more leaks,” Holmes noted. Holmes said that sometimes the leaks threatened the books in their library or dripped on to the computers in LEAP’s computer lab.
According to Holmes, the roof would cost normally $100,000 to replace. Contractors with whom LEAP has a good relationship have agreed to work within the scope of the $75,000 grant, she said.
CHEFA’s Sugerman Weintraub said her organization filled an important niche, as many philanthropic organizations donate for programs, but not for the maintenance or expansion of facilities and capital. “They’re likely to build college and career readiness programs, but not the roof,” Sugerman Weintraub said.
CHEFA, a quasi-state agency created in the 1960s to fill gaps in state funding for not-for-profits, raises revenue through bond sales.
Rachel Kline Brown, the director of development at LEAP, said the agency had applied for a grant for the roof several years in a row.
Sugerman Weintraub said CHEFA receives over 100 requests for grants each year, of which it can fund only 15.
New Haven State Rep. Roland Lemar said the cuts to state programs hurt LEAP and other community services. He added that funding for programs is of little use if the capital stock and physical facilities are decaying.
State Rep. Roland Lemar (at right) on the tour.
“If we can’t find new revenue, programs like this will get eviscerated,” Lemar said.
According to Kline Brown, LEAP has seen its annual level of state funding decline $400,000 since 2013, well over half the amount of money it once received. LEAP now receives a little over $300,000 in state aid to provide summer programs for 500 kids, after-school programs for 400 students each semester, as well as training and employment for 200 high school and college-aged counselors. Kline Brown said that private funders, who usually give grants of $5,000 to $10,000, can’t fill that void, especially given the staff hours it takes to apply for dozens of small grants.
“We know there’s no way for funders to step in for government,” Sugerman Weintraub said.
Yakeita Robinson, who went to LEAP as a kid and now works as the agency’s chief of staff, said that organization’s success depends on its ability to provide an accessible space for students. LEAP is a vital part of the lives of thousands of people, she said. “I hadn’t been exposed to much before LEAP.”
Roland Lemar needs to get over the idea that this state just has a revenue problem. He has spent all the revenue we have and then some. The state's fiscal woes are well documented as is the on going crisis with them. If he's going to get more revenue, he's going to be cutting far deeper into the budgets of a shrinking number of families in Connecticut. Can't he find another tune? This one is off pitch and out of step.