By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
Certified volunteers working out of the Park Avenue Community Center prepared 166 federal and state tax returns free of charge this year for people with incomes of $42,000 or less.
The filers received a total of $142,965 in refunds, according to Lou Manning, president of the Park Avenue Redevelopment Corp. and site director for the Internal Revenue Service’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program.
The Park Avenue site was open every Saturday during tax season through April 11.
Manning said the volunteers’ work is important in that tax refunds coming to Rowan Countians often represent money being spent here, too.
This year’s volunteers were trained at basic and intermediate levels, “so we could do a little bit more complicated returns,” Manning said.
Tax preparers at the Park Avenue VITA site included Cathren Bradley, Garth Birdsey, Linda Cooper and Mary Booth. Marjory Gordon was the site training coordinator.
Manning said his site and one at the Rufty-Holmes Senior Center are the only VITA sites in Rowan County.
The Park Avenue Center also was home again this year to the Park Avenue Academic Enrichment Program, which helped students after school with reading, math, science, social studies, writing and computer skills.
The Rev. William Turner said the program helped in getting the students prepared for end-of-grade testing.
Closing activities for the program were conducted last Thursday afternoon.
A dozen children, mostly from Koontz Elementary School, participated.
Mayor Susan Kluttz said the program is the kind of youth initiative the city has been promoting to help children through one-on-one tutoring and mentoring.
“I hope this sets an example for other neighborhoods,” she said.