The Calistoga City Council this week approved agreements to continue long-standing city funding for a local youth center, but cut the amount they’ll pay for it.

Part of the agreement for the upcoming year with the Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Helena and Calistoga, which has long run the Calistoga Teen Center, is a reduction in compensation for consultant services, from $40,000 to $20,000. To offset the compensation cut, the council agreed to waive utility costs the club would pay for using the city-owned Monhoff building at 1505 Grant St. According to Calistoga Mayor Donald Williams, utility costs add up to about $10,000.

Councilmembers said at their meeting Tuesday, June 23, they hoped to shift the remaining $10,000 in city savings to another purpose — such as addressing food insecurity or community enrichment grants. Interim City Manager Mitchell Celaya said staff will return at a future meeting to figure out how to allocate those funds.

It was not immediately clear how the Boys & Girls Club planned to make up for the funding shortfall.

Councilmember Lisa Gift noted at the meeting the city’s been providing a building for the center at no cost to the Boys & Girls Club and paid for utilities for over 20 years. The city’s also contributed $40,000 annually for the program since 2004, she said.

Gift said a council review of spending involved a push to temporarily reallocate funds to address food insecurity in Calistoga.

“I think we can all agree we don’t want to lose this program, especially going right into the summer,” Gift said. “And we can also review this once again at that mid-year budget cycle.”

The council in 2024 decided to end the city’s annual funding for the teen center in light of budget problems, but backtracked after community backlash and once the city managed to close the identified budget gap. At that time, the council decided to shift some of the utility costs to the club.

Calistoga resident Kerri Abreu said at the meeting Tuesday it was wrong for the city to take away funding for the teen center. She said the city should try to tackle food insecurity, but she didn’t understand why the money couldn’t come from somewhere else.

Williams said at the meeting the $10,000 could be allocated well to other organizations that serve an important purpose in the community.

“It’s not an indication that the Boys & Girls Club is not doing good work, but that there’s only so much to go around and we want to allocate it as fairly as possible,” Williams said.

You can reach Staff Writer Edward Booth at 707-521-5281 or edward.booth@pressdemocrat.com.