SEQUIM – Teenagers, and possibly their parents fared well when the Sequim City Council adopted a 2008 budget of nearly $20.5 million this week.
Councilman Don Hall made a motion to allocate $100,000 for the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula’s teen programs.
The other Sequim City Council members voted unanimously in favor during Monday’s meeting, thus giving the programs, which range from career-planning classes to Saturday night dances, another year of city funding.
The teen programs known as The Club began in January of this year with an initial investment of $100,000 from the council.
The members agonized at the end of 2006, however, over whether it’s a city’s job to fund after-school activities for teenagers instead of, say, more sidewalks.
Since The Club opened, Sequim Police Chief Robert Spinks and Mayor Walt Schubert have hailed it as a premier crime prevention program.
The Club welcomes middle school and high school students from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays and from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
To participate, teens must pay the Boys & Girls Clubs’ yearly dues of $24.
Club volunteer Stephen Rosales said he hopes to recruit teen members to help him put on a holiday luncheon next month for seniors, families and anyone “who’s lonely at Christmas,” at the club at 400 W. Fir St. in Sequim.
