City budget cuts: Brief reprieve over; Junction Neighborhood Service Center to close June 30th

Local neighborhood-organization leaders argued successfully to save it from last fall’s round of budget cuts – but now the West Seattle Junction Neighborhood Service Center (Alaska/42nd) is again slated for closure, according to a memo from the Department of Neighborhoods. This is part of almost $9 million in midyear budget cuts just unveiled by Mayor McGinn‘s office. From the memo by DON director Bernie Matsuno outlining more than $206,000 in cuts for the department:

… With these reductions, there are major staffing and programmatic impacts. We will be closing the West Seattle Neighborhood Service Center and moving operations into the Delridge facility. Although we believe this will not impact the community significantly (the Delridge facility is less than two miles away), NPIS staffing will be. We are losing funding for two, .5 FTE Customer Service Representatives (CSR) positions. Losing staff is never easy; we will do everything we can to support and assist staff as they seek other employment. The West Seattle facility will close on June 30.

The Junction center couldn’t stay open forever – it is on the site of the future Conner Homes development, which could start construction as soon as next winter. We are still reviewing the mayor’s plan to look for other West Seattle-specific cuts. This is the only West Seattle-specific cut listed in the presentation made to the Council Budget Committee this morning.

2 Replies to "City budget cuts: Brief reprieve over; Junction Neighborhood Service Center to close June 30th"

  • george June 20, 2011 (1:02 pm)

    Gosh, I can’t wait for that big hole to be dug @Junction Central. Should be awesome *sarcasm alert*

  • Kathleen June 20, 2011 (8:55 pm)

    This center will probably be more useful on Delridge anyways. I completely support this consolidation in times such as this.

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