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City council OKs money to reopen VIBES for teens By DAVID PRESZLER A teen dance club and activity center appears headed for a former bank building in downtown Medford. On Thursday, the Medford City Council approved a controversial and hurried request for $25,000 to reopen VIBES and develop a teen center. VIBES director Tom Cole hopes to open the dance club in the building at Front and Main streets on Jan. 1. Cole put a deposit on a lease for the building Thursday and planned to begin work on it today. "We're real happy about the outcome," he said. The $25,000 in city funding came a day after the Jackson County commissioners approved $25,000 for the project. Cole said it will take $65,000 to reopen VIBES, which opened and closed twice in 1998 in other locations. He is looking to private foundations for the remaining $15,000. VIBES, which stands for Vitality in Becoming Educated Socially, would operate as part of a nonprofit organization called Kids Unlimited. Revenue from from the dance club would support that group's free after-school programs. The building will also be used to offer activities for young people throughout the week. "We don't want it to be confused with just being a dance club," he told the council. But the dance club portion of the project was at the center of a lengthy debate sparked by objections from the owner of an existing downtown teen dance club. Mitch Hardage, owner of Club 25, opened the under-21 club on Riverside Avenue in late March. He said he built his business with his own money and doesn't think it's right that public money should be used to support a similar venture. "It gives a direct competitor an unfair advantage," he said. Hardage said the opening of VIBES will likely drive him out of business, because he doesn't believe the area can support two clubs. He said he supports the work of Kids Unlimited and offered to let the group use Club 25 free of charge if it would leave the dance club business to him. "I'm not here to put down their efforts," he said. "That's not what the issue is about." But the council set aside Hardage's concerns. Councilman John Michaels said the city supports other nonprofit efforts that could be seen as competing with business, from house painting projects to day-care programs. "This is not unprecedented," he said. Councilman Matt Hart argued the two ventures weren't similar because Club 25 is for-profit while VIBES would be a nonprofit that would support other programs. "That to me is a big difference," said Hart. The suddenness of the request, which came to the council only this week, was also an issue. Cole said he needed to secure the funding by today so another tenant didn't lease the building. Though the building has been vacant for a year, he said there were other prospective tenants. Councilmen Bill Moore and Curt Bennett said they supported the idea but felt a public hearing was needed; they were the only two to vote against it. "I have a real problem with this getting crammed down my throat in two days," Bennett said. "Anything else that comes before us, we take some time on." "I just feel terribly pushed," said Moore. "We are spending public dollars." The rest of the council decided the need for a teen center was enough to overcome their discomfort with the short timeline. The money will come from two parts of the city budget, $15,000 from a special "opportunity fund" and $10,000 from the council's travel and training budget. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA