By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
It’s not so much about “not in my back yard,” Burlington residents have said about a proposed Women’s Resource Center of Racine shelter and program center in the city.
It’s more, “not across the street from where my children go to school.”
Opposition showed up both at an initial town hall-style meeting Nov. 12 at Catholic Central’s Topper Hall, and again Monday at a Committee of the Whole meeting for the Burlington Area School District School Board.
Both times, the message from that opposition was clear.
“This type of facility does not belong across the street from a school,” said Lisa Wasik at the School Board meeting.
The School Board voted unanimously to send a letter to the city voicing objections to the proposed shelter location, calling it “not a proper fit” because of its placement.
The vote on that letter capped a tumultuous few weeks for the WRC. The planned Burlington shelter was announced at a press conference back in August, but Burlington residents didn’t become aware of the site until about three weeks ago.
The site – 241-249 Amanda Street, a current low-income boarding house arrangement – is at the corner of Amanda and Conkey streets. The school sign for Cooper Elementary School sits about 30 feet from the building’s parking lot.
Explanations aplenty
With the initial town hall meeting last week, the WRC started a series of gatherings to explain the purpose of the shelter, the need for it – and why the Amanda Street location was selected.
This initial meeting, scheduled for school parents, drew about 30 people. Including among the parents, though, were City Aldermen Jon Schultz and Ruth Dawidziak, as well as staff from the WRC and a handful of people whose work brought them in contact with domestic abuse victims.
As Cherie Griffin, the executive director, explained, the WRC has outgrown its space at Love Inc. and is in need of a shelter at this end of the county as well.
A long search led the WRC to the Amanda Street property, Griffin said. The building has a number of rooms that can be used to house shelter victims, but also common spaces and room for offices.
As for the danger, Griffin said the programs do not increase violence in the area. When asked how often the police had to respond to the shelter in Racine, both Griffin and WRC board member David Namowicz could recall only two problems – neither of which resulted in violence at the shelter.
One was a woman fleeing her abusive husband, who met police at the shelter. The other was a gang member fleeing gang-related violence. Those were the only two instances in 20 years, Griffin said.
“I can’t make you any promises about what domestic violence can do anywhere,” Griffin said. She added that domestic violence programs don’t increase violence, but decrease it.
“It’s a community problem, and we’re responding to it as a community,” she added.
Opposition clear
For all of the reassurances of the staff of the WRC, though, the parents remained unconvinced.
That was evident both in the comments of some of the parents after the meeting and in the comments made Monday night at the School Board meeting.
Wasik said that as soon as Griffin said the shelter staff could make no promises, “in my mind, that meeting was over.”
Sara Spencer, who has two children at Cooper, agreed.
“I do feel there may be a need in the community,” Spencer said. “To me, even the smallest risk is too big of a risk to take with our children.”
Christina Heinzelman added that her job as a parent is to protect her children – and she didn’t want to see them become another statistic.
“In my mind, it’s not worth the risk,” she said.
There were those in support of the shelter. A woman named Diana, who said she was a domestic violence survivor, told those parents and the School Board to “keep your hearts open.”
She also had children enrolled at Cooper.
“I can totally relate with you there,” she said.
Kimberly McGuinness-Rook, a midwife, pointed out that she had five children in the BASD school system, including two at Cooper. She had “no reservations” about the shelter being across from the school.
Support for the shelter was also voiced at the meeting at CCHS. But the overwhelming majority sided against the shelter, which resulted in the School Board motion and vote to send the letter.
Mayor Bob Miller confirmed Tuesday afternoon that in order for the shelter to come to Burlington – regardless of the status of the WRC’s purchase of the building – a zoning change would have to be first approved by the Plan Commission, and then by the City Council.
“There are several steps that still need to be gone through in order to change the zoning,” Miller said.
Both city aldermen who attended the WRC-hosted meeting commented Tuesday night. Dawidziak said she agreed with the parents that placing the shelter across from a school didn’t work.
Schultz echoed the sentiments of at least one of the parents, and is in the same situation with his children attending Cooper.
“Is something going to happen? Probably not,” Schultz said. “Do I want to take the chance of something happening? Probably not.”
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