Charles Crane/MDN Project BEE staff De’Zaun Webb, left, board member Becky Bertsch, Interim Director and Board President Tarina Crook, board member Amanda Gainert, board member Erica Riordan and program manager Torrey Poitra pose with diapers to be handed out through the organization’s diaper pantry to those in need. Project BEE will hold open houses and tours for the public on Feb. 16 and 17.

With the news that the Minot City Council voted to approve a mutual termination agreement with Project BEE for the Broadway Circle family shelter project, the Board of Directors of the troubled nonprofit announced the organization will be holding open houses next week to meet with the public. The open houses are scheduled for 9 a.m.-6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 16, and from 10 a.m-2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 17.

“They can see how everything is, what we’re doing, and we’ll try to answer as many questions as we can answer,” said Interim Director and Board President Tarina Crook.

Board members indicated despite scaling back a number of services and projects, it is proving too difficult to keep all of the plates spinning. Crook said the decision to agree to the mutual termination with the city for the Broadway Circle project was a difficult one to make, but the nonprofit is no longer in a position to manage it going forward.

“It’s just not feasible. We tried everything we could. It’s important to realize the constraints on your organization, and that’s an extremely hard reality to face. We wanted to see (Broadway Circle) through to completion because it was going to be so important for us. But it was going to take an astronomical amount of money to see it through. We had to look at ourselves and ask, ‘What would we be asking of our community?'” Crook said. “It’s one thing to ask our community to pour into us and to help us keep the warming shelter and keep people off the streets. It’s the middle of winter. We had to close for two weeks right around Christmas time, and that was devastating. I don’t want to see that happen again.”

The Board of Directors verified that taxes totaling more than $4,000 for the project had already been paid, and that more than $892,000 in repayments to the city would be paid out through insurance and restitution payments as they become available. Both Crook and board member Amanda Gainert said it is a matter of prioritization to ensure the facility is able to keep the lights and heat on at the reopened warming center and diaper pantry, which they said needs about $1,000 to operate day to day.

“It’s really important that we bring Project BEE back to its core values and keep it as simple as that, so that we are an organization that lasts here,” Gainert said.

Board member Erica Riordan acknowledged concerns from the community after the Project BEE homeless shelter in Minot was abruptly closed on Dec. 20, just days after the resignation of former Executive Director Elizabeth Larsen. Crook had stated previously that Larsen had furnished a letter of resignation to the board on Dec. 15, but a firm exit date had not been set. Crook said at the time that the board decided to formally fire Larsen after reviewing the shelter’s accounts. The board said it has provided three years of financials to investigators with the Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

“We’re making changes with our fiscal policies so we can regain the trust of the community. We know the community supports us, and we know they are hesitant right now,” Riordan said. “As a board, maybe things weren’t being done the right way before but that is very important to us now.”

The Project BEE board members were part time before the firing of Larsen, becoming more full time as board members were forced to be more hands-on with the shelter’s reality in the aftermath of the closure.

“When I got on the board, I was given a book to read. I read it, and I thought I knew what I needed to know. When I look back, there were things that I would say were missing that we could have had in place to make sure we were functioning appropriately, educated appropriately on how to be a board member, those kinds of things,” Riordan said.

Gainert cited a recently adopted fiscal policy for the nonprofit that implements necessary checks and balances she felt were missing in the prior regime. Under the current policies, dual signers are required for certain transactions, and the board is now able to easily access online financial and bank statements. Crook indicated the board hired a nonprofit coach to identify other gaps and concerns to ensure further transparency and accountability going forward.

“While there’s a lot of uncertainty still, I’m glad there’s not as much as when we started. As long as we have clients who need help, and the resources to pair them with those needs, we’re going to be here. We’re going to make it through this situation,” Crook said.