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As of Wednesday morning, it was not
clear how many of the DuBois Center
employees had been paid for their work
during February or if they received full
pay.
“Yes, we’ve paid almost
everybody,” George Jones Sr., the
interim director of the DuBois Center
said. He said employees had been paid
for the entire month. “We’ve attempted
to.”
Jones also said, “This
information that we are disseminating
was given by Sheila {Lee, the part-time
accountant for the center] to the people
in Smithfield.” Those people are an
attorney, Kenneth Hinton, and a CPA, Lee
Jackson. Lawrence (Eugene) Perry,
president of the National DuBois Alumni
Association who took control of the
center and its campus at the end of
February after long-time director Bettie
Murchison and her staff resigned, paid
$5,000 to Hinton and $7,500 to Jackson
in March.
On the other hand, Cathee
Miller, an administrator at the W.E.B.
DuBois Community Development Center that
Murchison and others formed to continue
the programs, said it appears that not
everyone has been paid and then not for
the entire month. She said the DuBois
CDC staff has given people a copy of
much they should have been paid for
February that they could take when they
went to pick up their checks.
Murchison will hold a staff
meeting tonight at The Forks Cafeteria
and will be able to determine who has
been paid and how much.
The North Carolina
Department of Labor continues its
investigation into the situation to
determine who is owed money and whether
it was paid in full.
“None of the HopeBuilders
got paid yet,” Miller said. HopeBuilders
are young adults who go to school to get
their GED and learn a trade and/or skill
such as heating and air conditioning or
practical nursing. They also intern at
local businesses. The contract with the
Wake County Work Force Development Board
pays them for their work starting at $7
an hour and also provides childcare and
transportation.
Miller said people who have
been paid are helping the HopeBuilders
who are in most acute need, particularly
those who have young children.
Jones was in a great hurry
Wednesday and ended the conversation
before he could be asked about
HopeBuilders.
The money to pay the
HopeBuilders is separate from the funds
the Wake County Department of Human
Services pays for the contract
counselors, case managers and other
personnel for the mental health
counseling program that serves 200
clients.
In March, Wake County paid
$142,777 to the DuBois Center for the
work the part-time and full-time
counseling staff performed in February.
That money is what Jones is supposed to
be disbursing.
* * * *
Tuesday night Commissioner
Frank Drake said, “The thunderstorm at
DuBois continues.”
He then asked if the town
should continue to pay for the water,
sewer and electric at the renovated gym.
The town has even replaced light bulbs.
It has done so in recognition of the
community service the center provided.
“I would like to extend an
invitation to the president to come and
talk to us and tell us the association’s
ambitions and desires” to give the board
good reasons to continue to pay, Drake
said.
The after-school tutoring
program staffed by volunteers and staff
from the Banks Kerr Family YMCA in
Wakefield continues in the gym, and the
Y plans to offer Camp High Hopes this
summer, a free summer camp for 100
children from the area around the DuBois
campus and from River Haven apartments. |
