Crisis Care Line group seeks funding

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

A local domestic violence shelter and hotline that struggled last year with financial issues has overcome its problems, said Kathy Taylor, a board member of Crisis Care Line/House of Transition.

Taylor met with the Van Wert County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday in connection with an application the group has submitted for the county’s share of marriage license fees, a traditional source of funding for her organization. County Commissioner’s Clerk Larry Clouse said the marriage license fees generate approximately $9,000 annually.

The marriage license fee money is also being sought by the YWCA of Van Wert County, which began offering domestic violence services last year after the Crisis Care Line organization lost  funding from the Ohio Attorney General’s office over a problem with financial reporting.

Taylor stressed to the commissioners that rumors of misuse of funds by the Crisis Care Line group were not true, noting that an audit by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office earlier this year confirmed that there was no missing money.

That doesn’t mean that financial issues were handled to the Crisis Care Line board’s satisfaction, she added. “Our director received letters in regards to concerns with the way reporting for the Attorney General’s grant funding had been handled,” Taylor said, adding that those issues have now been corrected.

Former Crisis Care Line Director Kathy Boaz resigned her position over the issue, and current then Sheriff Thomas Riggenbach took over as board president of the organization, Taylor noted, adding that Riggenbach worked with the Attorney General’s Office and the Office of Criminal Justice to verify that there was no misuse of funds. Riggenbach later resigned as board president when he was elected sheriff.

“There were no missing monies,” Taylor stressed, adding, “Had there been any issue of embezzlement, that would have been pursued through legal channels and whatever action that needed to be taken would have been taken.”

While its financial issues were being corrected, Taylor told the commissioners that Crisis Care Line continued to provide domestic violence services to the community and also operated its House of Transition shelter in Van Wert.

The Crisis Care Line has also been awarded baseline funding from the Ohio Criminal Justice Services, although a grant from the United Way of Van Wert County previously given to the group for domestic violence services has been awarded to the YWCA, Taylor said. The organization also has approximately $120,000 in the bank, owes only $17,000 on the house it uses as a shelter and also owns a vehicle, she noted.

Taylor acknowledged that the rumors and financial issues from last year have hurt the Crisis Care Line group, which still doesn’t have a director, although the organization will be seeking a part-time director in the near future. A supervisor was hired to direct the organization’s staff in the interim.

The group also has yet to re-establish its 24-hour domestic violence hotline, Taylor added, although efforts are underway in that area as well.

She did note, though, that the Crisis Care Line group is very much alive and continues to provide needed services to the community. “We are still there; we are still providing services,” Taylor said, noting that the Crisis Care Line (419.238.HELP) is still the group’s contact number, while there is also a business line at 419.238.4641.

For their part, the commissioners had some concerns about the duplication of effort in providing domestic violence services to local residents and suggested that Crisis Care Line officials talk to the YWCA about working together. Taylor said the group would pursue that option, but also noted that the YWCA had not been interested in pooling efforts last year when the Crisis Care Line group approached that organization.

Meanwhile, she said, the Crisis Care Line/House of Transition group will continue to strengthen its operations and hope that lost funding can be restored so that it can continue to provide domestic violence services to the community.