First Step Donations Drying Up Sobriety Club Faces Shut-Off Of City Water; Contributions Drop After Violation Notice

First Step Services may be dry in more ways than one next month.

The clean-and-sober club received a final notice last week from the city’s water department that it must either pay up the nearly $500 it owes or face having its water turned off.

It’s just the latest of many problems, says owner Darold Johnson.

“It’s just been a circus,” he said. “We’ve been behind before, but not like this.”

Johnson says he’s juggled bills since opening the club at East First and Napa 3 years ago. It takes about $120 a day to run the private club, which is funded through donations, he said.

But since January, the club is only bringing in about $16 a day, Johnson said. The donations dropped when the city served the club with a notice of violation, saying the operation was not zoned or licensed to serve as a mission or detox center.

“If you grow from a small fruit stand into a grocery store, you’re going to have to adapt a little,” said code enforcement officer Scott Emmerson.

Emmerson said the club has since complied with the city’s demands, offering food only from a vending machine and not allowing patrons to spend the night there anymore.

But Johnson blames the lack of income on the violation notice. He worries that former patrons think the club was closed down.

Early Thursday afternoon, a half dozen people sat on First Step’s couches, watching TV, smoking and visiting.

“I hope we can keep this going,” Johnson said, sitting in his office. “We’re robbing Peter to pay Paul at this point,” he said. “And we’re having to get darn good at it.”

Neighbors had mixed reactions to the club’s troubles.

COPS East Central President Tom Bernard filed a complaint in January, saying the club was “not fighting crime but encouraging it” by bringing in prostitutes and suspected drug dealers.

He said Thursday he didn’t want to see the club close, but that it did need more organization and clearly defined rules.

“The prostitution issue is still there,” he said. “To me, they’re still encouraging it.”

But some people aren’t unhappy about First Step faltering.

“Myself and other people in the neighborhood wouldn’t be sad if it was closed up,” said Darrell Smith, owner of Boyd-Walker Sewing Machine Co. next door to the club.

Smith objects to the drug dealers, pimps and prostitutes he sees frequenting First Step and its sidewalks.

While he says the situation has gotten better in the past month, he doesn’t think it’s been resolved.

“There needs to be more control,” he said. “Helping people does not mean you help them continue their bad activities.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: DEFICIT SPENDING While it costs about $120 a day to run First Step, donations have been averaging only about $16 a day.