DATE: Thursday, October 16, 1997            TAG: 9710160546

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CAMDEN                            LENGTH:  117 lines

BUILDING'S FUTURE BOGGED DOWN IN ITS PAST MEANT TO TRAIN ARTISANS, IT'S NOW BEING USED AS A DAY-CARE FACILITY.

A new building about five miles outside of town in many ways represents the best hopes and the worst problems besetting the award-winning Watermark cooperative of artisans these days.

Financed by federal grant money, the building originally was meant to be a training center for the artisans run by a sister organization called the Northeastern Economic Development Foundation.

But during the past year, the two groups have had a falling-out, and the building is being used as a day-care center by the Northeastern Community Development Corp., which NEED became two years ago.

Now the state has frozen grant money while it sorts things out.

The director of the development corporation says the North Carolina Division of Community Assistance, the state agency looking into the matter, has already decided: the building can be used only as a training facility.

``They told me any activity other than training Watermark members is not a legitimate activity,'' NCDC Director Clarke Martin said Tuesday. ``They can't say what we're doing is not a legitimate grant activity.''

But Gloria Nance-Sims of the division of community assistance said Wednesday her office is still considering requests by Watermark and NCDC to amend requirements under the grant that paid for the building.

``We still need additional time. I don't know who his source is,'' said Nance-Sims, assistant director for community development with the NCDCA.

One compromise under consideration is that the building could be used for training as well as day care.

The facility was built with $344,000 of an $896,500 federal grant awarded to Watermark and NCDC in 1995 and administered by the state agency. There is still $229,000 of the grant remaining.

The state froze grant money for the two organizations when it discovered NCDC was using the new facility as a community day-care center.

Martin said if the state insists that the building be used only for training, he would appeal through Camden County.

``We don't mind them doing other things, but we still want them to work with Watermark,'' said John Smith, Camden County manager.

Watermark officials say the building was supposed to be for Watermark training all along.

``That's how everybody perceived it,'' said Kim Sawyer, director of Watermark. ``It's not that we're opposed to day care, but that's just not who we are.''

Watermark is an award-winning cooperative for artists and makers of crafts. The 800-member co-op trains mostly low-income people to make crafts, then markets the products through large retail stores, a nationally circulated catalog and its own retail outlet. About 350 members actively make and sell crafts.

Watermark artisans do not need full-time day care but only occasional baby-sitting, which is usually taken care of by the artists themselves, Sawyer said.

Sawyer and Martin were waiting on official notification from the NCDCA on a proposal by the two groups that would allow Watermark use of at least one room in the day-care center.

Rifts between NCDC and Watermark began when former Watermark director Carolyn McKecuen and former NCDC director George McKecuen resigned under fire in the summer of 1996. The McKecuens were husband and wife. At the time, NCDC and Watermark had been sister organizations and operated in the same building on U.S. 158 in Camden.

Martin followed George McKecuen as the new NCDC director and Sawyer took Carolyn McKecuen's place.

The discord between Watermark and NCDC came to a head when Martin fired the training coordinator for Watermark in October 1996. Martin insisted it was necessary. Watermark members were outraged.

``It was not pretty,'' Martin said.

Watermark began arranging its own training, and the two organizations had little to do with each other. Sawyer said Watermark is thriving without any help from NCDC.

``When the state funded the grant, it was for two organizations that were like one,'' said Dick George, hired by Camden County to oversee administration of the grant and mediate between the two groups. ``Now the two organizations have gone in different directions. Most of the time they'll fund one nonprofit organization, not two. This may the first and the last time they do that.''

George is a former assistant director of the Albemarle Commission, with years of grant-writing experience.

The NCDC was originally formed as the Northeastern Economic Development Foundation, a nonprofit training arm of Watermark. The nonprofit made it easier to get private and government grants. The NEED Foundation was renamed NCDC in 1995.

NCDC's mission also includes training local people to run a small business, from getting loans to keeping a budget, Martin said. He believed a community day-care facility fit the goal of the grant.

``Since our source of craft people was no longer there, we looked for other ways,'' said Martin. ``We wanted to become an active player in some sector of the economy with the goal of raising productivity, thereby adding income-earning ability.''

The day-care center, the only one in Camden County, has created three full-time jobs and could provide up to seven full-time jobs, Martin said. There are only two licensed day-care centers in private homes in Camden offering slots for 12 children.

Watermark was also in violation of the grant requirements. Watermark was to hire five new employees, buy art supplies, finance one-third of its payroll, expand its warehouse and buy new machinery that would increase production. The state said Watermark had not purchased the equipment it was supposed to.

Watermark was limited to purchasing a ``fluffer and stuffer'' machine that stuffed 1,000 dolls a day.

``We didn't want to purchase that piece of machinery,'' Sawyer said. ``We didn't have that kind of volume.''

Sawyer hopes the state will allow her to buy equipment, such as a forklift, for the warehouse loading dock. Nance-Sims said that would be considered. Meanwhile, Sawyer looks forward to receiving the rest of the grant money.

``I work 80 hours a week and 75 percent of that time is spent dealing with this issue,'' Sawyer said. ``It has been incredibly time-consuming.''

``They can have as much of us as they want,'' Martin said. ``If we need to amend the program somehow, we can amend the program.''

George hopes to be able to negotiate with the NCDCA to get the best for both organizations.

``The golden rule applies here,'' George said. ``He who has the gold rules. In the end, whatever they (NCDCA officers) say goes.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

FEDERAL GRANT

[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]

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