Orange Park may cut ties with summer camp provider

Orange Park’s Culture and Recreation Committee voted to request proposals from summer camp providers at the town’s T.C. Miller Youth Learning Center after complaints about the current vendor: Clay County Character Youth Building Inc.

The nonprofit operates a summer camp attended primarily by African American children.

The T.C. Miller Community Youth Learning Center was built in 1938 and served the African-American Community in Orange Park as an elementary school.

Town Manager Sarah Campbell told the committee during its Nov. 16 meeting that Clay County Character Youth Building Inc. has allowed its CEO, who cannot pass a background check, access to children during the camp, has not provided background checks to the state since 2016 and allowed the facility to be trashed during a birthday party.

Campbell said parents of campers have been complaining to the town since 2015 about the nonprofit’s CEO: Ronald Flowers’ presence at the site and that the nonprofit’s leader has had run-ins with several town staff members.

The town manager said that when confronted about problems with its operations at the city-owned center, Flowers and Clay County Character Youth Building Inc. Vice president Denise Jordan accused town representatives of racism.

“I consider him to be a volatile individual,” Campbell said of Flowers. “I don’t think these are town staff members who are being oppressive or bullying in any way. It’s been white employees; it’s been black employees. That doesn’t seem to matter.”

Campbell responded to the nonprofit’s claims of racism by saying it would be discriminatory to allow Clay County Character Youth Building Inc. to continue operating the camp without the background checks and with Flowers’ continued presence there.

“Low-income black children deserve to be protected as much, if not more than white, high-income children in the town,” Campbell said, “and so there’s no reason that we as a community can’t say these children deserve better because I think they do.”