DATE: Friday, May 30, 1997                  TAG: 9705300694

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY                    LENGTH:   67 lines

IF NO BUILDING FOR TEEN CENTER IS FOUND, GRANT COULD BE LOST

A cadre of determined volunteers has for the past year hurdled one obstacle after another in an effort to have a teen center built, and it may stumble yet unless it can find the right vacant building.

Volunteers of Project Voice Inc., led by city resident Terry Blucker, first struggled to build public interest. Then they wrestled with local governments for funding. Then they scuffled with state government over the particulars of a $50,000 grant. Then they battled and lost to a church for a piece of property. Now they are scrambling to find an old building to remodel before the state yanks back its grant.

An inexpensive building just right for a teen center is hard to find.

``Right now, I don't know of any existing buildings within the city limits,'' City Manager Steve Harrell said. ``We did an extensive search last year to find such an animal.''

The state will not allow a new building. Since the grant writers for the teen center stated they would remodel a vacant structure, the state is holding them to it, Harrell said.

The $50,000 grant comes from the Governor's Crime Commission and is contingent upon a contribution of $25,000, combined, from Elizabeth City, Pasquotank County and Camden County. All three governing bodies have agreed to that. The deadline to use the grant was June 30, but city officials are likely to get an extension to Sept. 30.

They just need a building.

Even a small house that can be moved will do, Harrell said. People from the city, the county and Project Voice and two realty agents are all looking for the right vacant building or house.

``It's doable,'' Harrell said. ``It's a matter of finding a building. All I can say is we're hopeful.''

Project Voice was formed four years ago to sponsor summer drug- and alcohol-free concerts to provide clean entertainment for teens.

Blucker and government officials dreamed of building a comprehensive teen center that would combine counseling services, computer work areas, a woodworking center, arcade games, a soda fountain, a full-sized stage, and a disc jockey booth.

Critics said teen centers have been tried before and failed. But Blucker says that's because they were either just a hangout or just a counseling center.

``Both of those have a terrible success rate,'' Blucker said. ``This teen center isn't just a hangout.''

Once Project Voice got its grant last June, Blucker received conflicting reports from state grant administrators on how to use the grant. One administrator said Project Voice could put up a new metal building and use the grant to finish the inside. Another administrator reversed that decision and insisted on the remodeling of an existing building.

Earlier, the city planned to lease a small lot on Brooks Avenue to Project Voice for $1 a year to put up a metal building. First the city had to buy the property at a tax lien auction held by the county. After three attempts and three months, a church near the property outbid the city for the lot. The city offered Project Voice another small lot on the same street that it already owned.

They just need a building to put on it.

``This project is not dead,'' said a determined Blucker. He gets his motivation from his own experiences as a teen without enough to do and his concern for two of his four children who are teen-agers, he said. ``When you're dealing with an area that has little or nothing for teens to do away from sports or church, they get bored. The only entertainment they have is self-made, and many times that means drugs and alcohol. If you take that away, then you have to offer a positive alternative.''

For information or to suggest a vacant building or house, call 335-1973.

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