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Is there a stigma attached to the Westside Community Center now that it is operated by northside megachurch Woodmen Valley Chapel?

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Eric Phillips, a former property manager in Colorado Springs, says there is.

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And he doesn’t want three other community centers turned over to churches to suffer the same fate.

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Instead, Phillips wants the city to give control of the centers in Meadows Park, Hillside and Deerfield Hills to his fledgling nonprofit organization: Community Partnership Project.

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Here’s a look at its web site and a few photos it has posted.

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It’s a choice the City Council will face in coming weeks.

Another church-based group has a plan to rescue Meadows Park from closure in 2011.

 And the group believes the same concept could apply to Hillside and Deerfield Hills.

 The plan offered by Scott Lovaas, a pastor at Broadmoor Community Church, is patterned after the Woodmen Valley Chapel concept. But it’s different.

Instead of just one church taking over a center, Lovaas said he has recruited a dozen churches located near Meadows Park to contribute money, volunteers and ideas to run the center.

Unlike Phillips, who has only a shell web site and no specific plans for programs or funding, Lovaas has a 35-page Master Plan proposal for City Council detailing seven areas of focus for programs at Meadows Park from 2011 to 2013.

And perhaps more important, Lovaas said he has pledges of cash, volunteers and grants of about $125,000 for the center. His group will approach the City Council next week to ask for $75,000 to bring the total operating budget to $200,000.

Brian Kates, the city’s Meadows Park manager, said Lovaas is offering the city a bargain. Historically, it has subsidized about 90 percent of the community centers’ budgets. The $75,000 figure represents a subsidy of just 37 percent, Kates said.

Lovaas plans to use existing city staff to oversee the various projects his group intends to offer at the center from day care and after-school programs to hot lunch programs, health and wellness clinics, medical screening and even crime prevention classes.

Phillips said the city staff has done a poor job engaging the community centers into neighborhoods.

“People don’t know what these centers are or what they offer,” Phillips said.

 He said his staff, when hired, will emphasize “community revitalization.” And he said his plan is to charge a membership fee, perhaps $20 a year, for use of the centers.

Phillips said Community Partnership Project has a fundraising reception scheduled Sept. 22 at the El Paso Club downtown and plans to approach the City Council with its proposal on Sept. 27.

Here’s a previous column I wrote about the community centers and a blog.

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