A number of delays, including nowhere to prepare meals, won’t stop the new Summit County Battered Women’s Shelter from opening by mid-February, its director said Tuesday.
Terri Heckman, the director of the shelter, said the delays created a financial dilemma, but they will not stop progress.
First there was a faulty switch on a generator that caused an unexpected $5,000 expense. Then the kitchen could not be built in the basement because the ventilation system did not pass building codes and was considered a fire hazard.
Heckman said it was cheaper to build a new kitchen on the first floor as an attachment to the shelter than spend $50,000 to ventilate the system. But because the new location will not have a kitchen until about mid-May or June 1, meals can’t be prepared on site.
“I really had to make a decision. Do I leave the three buildings open and operating, which is not a financially smart thing to do, or do I close the old two shelters that are on their last leg, the whole reason why we built the new building, or should I move all the residents into the renovated facility and figure out a way to feed the residents, until our kitchen opens,” she said.
She chose to bring the residents to the new building, and work on a meal plan — finding meals for 90 days.
She’s hoping there are 90 groups or churches or youth groups, who need service hours, that will step up and each do one meal or underwrite the cost to get one dinner for the residents one evening.
Heckman said breakfasts are under control, because many bakeries and coffee shops donate pastries and the agency can buy milk and boxes of cereal. For lunches she said the agency is hoping to get groups to volunteer to make sandwiches of different meats and cheeses and donate them. The agency can buy pieces of fruit or chips. Leftovers can be frozen and used on a different day.
Heckman is more worried about dinners.
“The word is getting out, we have some real creative people. One man called and said he’d donate money or just call in 20 pizzas,” Heckman said. “People like doing hands-on work too. My mom is 83 and she asked if a bunch of her friends can get together and just make dinner one day and we pick it up. I said absolutely. It makes them feel good and it serves a huge purpose for us.”
Heckman said the agency will close one building at a time, so some clients will come in February and others will come in March so the number of people served will increase next month.
There are currently 70 residents in the two shelters and 154 beds available at the new facility, dubbed the Center for Hope and Healing.
“Considering where this building started and the new life we have given it in East Akron I really think it’s going to be a testament for a long, long time and give the community something to be proud of when it comes to domestic violence,” Heckman said.
Marilyn Miller can be reached at 330-996-3098 or mmiller@thebeaconjournal.com or Follow her on Twitter@MarilynMillerBJ.