Red Cross resurrects CdA office

Two years after budget deficits forced its closure, the North Idaho office of the American Red Cross will reopen next month, officials said.

Within weeks, the reconfigured disaster relief agency is expected to install a new director at a new site – the Harding Family Center, 411 N. 15th St., Coeur d’Alene.

The move will mean more health and safety classes and a better backup for regional agencies that respond to emergencies.

“Closing the office caused us logistical problems,” said Dan Cochran, deputy chief of fire prevention for the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department. “We were looking at a minimum of two hours before we could get Red Cross response to our area, unless it was a major disaster.”

Fire crews will breathe easier knowing there are new resources available, Cochran said. In the meantime, Red Cross officials said they plan to gradually build renewed resources to serve Kootenai, Shoshone and Benewah counties.

“We’re going to open this office under the expectation that it will slowly grow,” said Polly Gorley, public relations director for the American Red Cross of Greater Idaho.

Faced with declining contributions, the state agency closed two offices and consolidated another during the past four years, Gorley said. The Coeur d’Alene office was closed in 2004; the last part-time staff member left in February 2005.

“It was a combination of issues, including donor fatigue,” she said. “And every day across the nation several new nonprofits open up. The competition for those donor dollars gets harder and harder.”

Agency financial records indicate that the North Idaho Red Cross district posted a loss of nearly $65,000 for the fiscal year that ended in July. Gorley said the Boise headquarters, which has an annual budget of about $2.1 million, will subsidize the regional chapter until contributions resume.

Budget projections are expected to brighten for the nonprofit agency, organizers said, following the Idaho Legislature’s passage of a law that will allow donations to be fun-neled to the Red Cross through state tax forms. Starting in 2007, taxpayers will be able to check a box that will send contributions of at least $10 apiece to the agency. Even if only 5 percent of taxpayers comply, Red Cross organizers estimate they’ll raise $235,000 the first year, said Jim Tyson, the agency’s development director.

“It certainly would make our life more palatable,” he said, noting that he’s rooting for a response closer to 20 percent.

Neither Gorley nor Tyson would identify the new director for North Idaho. That announcement is expected in mid-May.