We must have some real bone-heads on the recruitment board

Lets remember that it serves Ward A as well. Its one of the few open meeting places on that side of the city.

I was just there for a couple of meetings and the condition is deplorable. The building has central air, but each room has an ugly noisy window air conditioner. Whats with that? Cant they find someone to fix the AC or did the city get screwed on the quality of the facility?

Also, whats with the wires running out of the recessed can lights? Really?

Its a shame how much wear and tear has happened in this place given the poor utilization, and the shoddy repair work.

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

Just over a month and a half into the term of Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, the changes continue in Jersey City?s municipal government, with the head of the Mary McLeod Bethune Life Center axed this month and city officials saying they want to transform the financially beleaguered community center.

The Bethune Center?s director, Verna Sims, was sacked in the last two weeks, sources say, and has been replaced by Alita Carter and Alvin Pettit. The two will share the $60,000 salary Sims made, according to city spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill.

Meanwhile, Betty Outlaw, who formerly ran the city?s Public Works and Health departments, will act in a part-time, advisory capacity with the co-directors, earning $20,000. Outlaw ran unsuccessfully for the City Council in 2009 on former Assemblyman Lou Manzo?s mayoral ticket.

Located on Martin Luther King Drive between Dwight Street and Fulton Avenue, the Bethune Center is the go-to place for community gatherings in Ward F. Job fairs, meetings about the Garfield Avenue chromium site and anti-violence forums are held inside the two-story facility. A day care center is on the ground floor.

A frequent complaint from residents during Fulop?s transition was that the Bethune Center is not used to create broad programming for all of the community, Morrill said.

Fulop said the city plans to make the Bethune Center an ?active cultural hub? in Ward F, with enhanced resources for community outreach and programming experts.

Carter, one of its new directors, told The Jersey Journal the community can expect new things.

?There will be changes here,? she said.

The Bethune Center, named for the pioneering African-American educator and international political and human rights activist, was first conceived in 1999. The city borrowed $5.2 million to pay for it.

The center is hemorrhaging money, according to the city, which says it costs about $670,000 annually to operate and brings in only about $100,000 in revenue from the daycare center, a nonprofit that operates there, and residents who rent out rooms for parties.

The city spends about $400,000 annually just to repay the bonds it took out to pay to build the center.




Morrill declined to say why Sims is no longer a city employee. She said the city is now performing ?an extensive audit of activities at the Bethune.?

Sims, who could not be reached for comment, is a former educator, teaching grades 3 through 8 for 35 years, according to a council resolution honoring her in March. She also formerly owned and operated the catering business Tastefully Done.