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	Sandra Lyon, executive director of Episcopal Social Services, spoke to more than 300 people at a rally in support of the agency at its building in downtown Wichita Sept. 9. Behind her are a reporter for a local radion station and Deacon Allen Ohlstein, chair of the diocesan Outreach Committee. Photo by Melodie Woerman

ESS readies for battle over its building

By Melodie Woerman
Editor, The Harvest

Episcopal Social Services is in a fight for its life. No one disputes that the agency provides vital services to the poor and disadvantaged in Wichita. Their ministry has drawn praise from civic and church leaders across the community. They routinely receive thousands of dollars in grants from private foundations and government entities.

But all that may come to a halt if they can’t find a new building.

ESS’s current structure, which it has occupied since 1988, stands smack in the middle of an area to be demolished for construction of a 15,000-seat sports and entertainment arena being built by Sedgwick County. The agency is willing to move, but the amount they were offered for their building is less than half what they need to relocate.

So now ESS finds itself in court, where it will make the case for the money it needs for a place where it can keep going. On Sept. 8 it was sued by Sedgwick County, along with a handful of other property owners, in the first lawsuit designed to bring this matter to a close.

Day in court
The dispute arises over adequate compensation for ESS’s building. The county has offered $500,000 for the 12,500-square foot facility, which is less than the $671,250 the county assigned it last year in a tax valuation. And ESS Executive Director Sandra Lyon says the cost to buy a new building and remodel it for the agency’s purposes likely will run closer to $1.3 million.

The county commission has said it can’t offer more than the appraised value for any of the 29 pieces of property in the arena district. Three owners so far have agreed to the offered price, including a bar across the street from ESS with a history of police calls for drug and alcohol violations. The county is paying $915,000 for that 13,900-square foot property.

Because the parties can’t agree on a price, state law requires that the matter now go before the district court, where a judge ultimately will decide on a purchase price.

Lyon said she learned of the lawsuit against ESS in a meeting with a member of the Sedgwick County Commission on Sept. 8. “He told us they were doing us a favor by suing us first,” she said.

The ESS Board of Directors has hired attorneys and is waiting for an independent appraiser to give his report on the building’s value.

A hearing then will take place, likely in the next two months. ESS will appear before three panelists selected by the judge, who will hear testimony from the agency and the county before recommending a price to the judge, who will decide on a final offer to the agency.

Legal options after that, such as appeals, could be used if the amount still won’t get ESS into a new building, Lyon said. She hopes it doesn’t come to that.

In addition to the legal front, Lyon and her board have become real estate scouts, searching for property in the downtown area that could meet its needs.

She said finding a new location is a challenge, given the shortage of suitable buildings in the area. They want to remain downtown, she said, because that’s where most of their clients live.

They also need ready access to the city buses, since so few clients own cars, and they need a parking lot big enough to accommodate the nearly 100 volunteers who serve there.

Lyon said she is starting to wonder how ESS can manage to make this transition happen. They need both a building to buy and the money to buy it, and right now both seem a long way off. She said she hopes parishes and members across the diocese will remember Episcopal Social Services in their prayers. “If we are praying for a miracle,” she said, “we need everyone’s prayers.”

Hundreds rally in support
A rally for ESS took place Sept. 9 at the agency’s front door, organized by Bishop Dean Wolfe and lay and clergy leaders of the Southwest Convocation. More than 300 people filled the sidewalk and spilled into the adjoining street to show their support for what the agency provides to Wichita’s poor.

Bishop Wolfe said it was wrong for the county to displace such a vital institution and not make provisions for the agency to continue. “We will not rest, we will not be satisfied, until this wrong is put right,” he said to cheers from the crowd.

He said the county had failed to value the work the agency does in serving Wichita’s poor and homeless, calling them the most vulnerable members of society. He urged those attending to contact members of the commission in support of the agency. “What we do here does make a difference,” he said.

The Rev. Steven Mues, rector of the Combined Ministry of St. Alban’s and St. Stephen’s in Wichita, fired up the crowd when he chastised the county for comparing the ESS building to a warehouse in its appraisal process. “This is not a warehouse,” he said. “It is a recycling center, a recycling center for human beings, providing the resources so those who have been cast aside and scratched and damaged and hurt by life can find resources to help them reclaim life and become new beings.”

Some good news
ESS has received some good news that buoys spirits in the midst of its legal battle, Lyon said.

The agency received word in early October that it would receive $10,000 worth of consulting services, thanks to the Wichita Community Foundation. It will be used to help ESS develop strategic plans for its future ministry.

The grant, Lyon said, “helps us focus on the future.”