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Business & Tech

New Deal Café Pays Down Its Debt

Basking in its growing financial stability, the café cooperative shares the good news at annual members meeting.

Cheering, clapping and whistling greeted Board of Directors President Michael Hartman’s announcement — the major revelation of the cooperative's annual members meeting Sunday — that the café has paid off its major debts to banks, including Bank of America.

Co-op members Peter May and Bill Wilkerson had countersigned these major bank loans for the café and were personally liable for tens of thousands of dollars if the café had defaulted, Wilkerson explained to Patch on Tuesday.

Wilkerson told Patch that paying down this debt gives the cooperatively run café stability, financial reserves, and more money to support arts and music programming.

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In many ways the New Deal Café has “passed out of its adolescence” in the words of Craig Tooley, a candidate to the Board of Directors.

But the café’s new found financial stability is not without contention. Mike Stark, who was later elected to the Audit Committee, questioned the necessity of having a paid general manager and bar manager, as these positions had previously been filled by volunteers.

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The Audit Committee report expressed similar concerns, stating that it “maintains serious reservations about the new organizational structure of the café, which replaced volunteer positions with 2 employees.”

Others argued that a professional paid staff was a necessary step in the café’s evolution from a volunteer-run “community rec room” to a serious business, whose patrons expect — in the words of Lori Denn, an Audit Committee candidate — their “meals to be hot and their beer to be cold.” By bringing the bookkeeping in-house, the general manager provides more timely financial reporting and budget forecasting.

Members also disagreed on whether to raise the price of beer — which currently sells for $3.99, according to the New Deal’s website.

More than four years ago, the café was burdened with debt, lacked a working kitchen, and couldn’t fill board positions, according to Hartman. Wilkerson believes that the café has survived “because it is a cooperative.”

Success was a personal crusade for Wilkerson and May, who worked with many other volunteers to turn the café around. May believes that the cafe has succeeded “because so many people cared.”

Bar Manager Amethyst Dwyer, in her presentation to the board, called on members to “continue to work together as a family and a tribe.” Hartman hopes that the café leadership increases communication to members and member participation in decision making.

At Sunday’s meeting, Café members voted in contested elections — the first in a couple of years, according to Hartman. Six people ran for four open board positions on the five-member board. Hartman sees this as a sign of growing member engagement, which he wants to encourage.

In addition to Hartman, who was reelected, the elections brought three new board members: Lisa Voith, Dorian Winterfeld, and Neil McConlogue. They will serve with Hartman and Wilkerson, who is not up for reelection this year.

The café also gained three entirely new Audit Committee members: William O’Grady, Michael Stark, and Tom LeaMond.

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