Sunday's Internet Edition, September 07, 2008.
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Madison Sutphin was one of the hunters at Heritage Park Friday evening for the city's annual Easter egg hunt. |
Publisher - Funding to build a new cabin at Camp Sheppard was among the items axed from the state budget Friday by Governor Joe Manchin.
Manchin wielded his line item veto to trim more than $8 million from next year’s $3.9 billion general revenue budget, including nearly $1 million set aside for improvements at 4-H camps around the state.
Delegate Bob Ashley (R-Roane) said that included $100,000 for Camp Sheppard, the Roane County 4-H camp located at Gandeeville.
Since the Legislative Budget Digest was eliminated three years ago, local lawmakers have been procuring funds for an ongoing improvement project at the camp that entails tearing down all the old cabins, first constructed in the 1930s, and replacing them with new cabins.
So far, four new cabins have been built, and a fifth is scheduled for construction later this year. The money for that cabin has already been allocated and is not in jeopardy.
The plan is to build two more new cabins, bringing the total to seven.
“If we don’t have the state money, it complicates things,” WVU Extension agent Kate Burbank said. “We were only going to ask for funding two more years.”
The funds for 4-H camps in the state budget were distributed through the State Dept. of Agriculture. Ashley said after other counties got wind of what was going on, they jumped on the bandwagon.
Last year, the 4-H camp improvement line item was only $600,000. This year it was up to $900,900.
Ashley said he had already discussed the funding cut with the governor’s legislative liaison, Jim Petrolo, and received some positive feedback.
“There’s no guarantee at this point, but he thought the money would be replaced,” Ashley said.
“We are getting close to finishing this project,” he said. “We don’t need the program to go away at this point.”
Since the project to improve the camp began in 1995 with improvements to the sewage system, Burbank said the camp has received a total of $800,000 in state funds. Another $200,000 has come through private donations.
Burbank remains hopeful that the funding will come from someplace so the project can be finished.
“In the past, all of our local contributions have had an element of surprise,” she said.
As examples she noted the donation of over $8,000 from a livestock organization that disbanded, the gift of a truck that sold for $7,000, half the sale proceeds of a home left in an estate and a large donation from a business that sold a piece of property.
“We continue to be optimistic about the building program because it positively affects so many youth, families and organizations,” Burbank said. “Camp Sheppard is not just a 4-H camp. It’s a community facility and people use it all the time.”
