Durango’s overnight emergency warming center – a place where almost anyone can go for the night, but not technically to sleep – closed Friday after someone broke into the facility.
Despite what the now-former center coordinator wrote in an email to volunteers the next day, the warming center is expected to reopen later this week and will remain located at the Compassion Center west of Durango on U.S. Highway 160.
The warming center operates overnight when temperatures are forecast to dip below 15 degrees. It cannot operate as a formal shelter with beds, but is in effect a low-barrier place where anyone can spend the night. The warming center is run mostly by volunteers organized by a council of partnered nonprofits and individuals, which leases the space from the Community Compassion Outreach.
Someone broke into the Compassion Center on Friday, said CCO Executive Director Donna Mae Baukat.
The man broke a window, busted through a door, stole some food and tossed it into the street, Baukat said. He was discovered there by Dave Schneider, the former coordinator of the warming center, and the facility was closed until repairs could be completed.
On Tuesday, Baukat said she was having the doors and window replaced, and that she hoped the warming center would reopen by Thursday or Friday.
Throughout December and early January, the warming center operated for eight nights and hosted five to 17 guests each night.
After the break-in and the decision to temporarily close the shelter, Schneider sent an email Saturday lambasting Baukat and incorrectly saying the warming shelter had closed permanently.
“Out of spite and vindictiveness, Donna Mae Baukat, Executive Director of Community Compassion Outreach has chosen to violate her agreement with the EWC Council, who subleases the property from her for our night program,” he wrote. “She would rather have people freeze on the street than act rationally and in the best interests of our community.”
Baukat said the email was false and defamatory, and noted that she holds a memorandum of understanding with the emergency warming center council, but no formal sublease. It’s unclear what led to the outburst, and Schneider did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
He resigned as coordinator Sunday.
Chairman of the warming center council Mike Todt said the council disavows everything Schneider wrote and said Schneider was not speaking for the organization. In an email Monday to volunteers, the council apologized to Baukat.
“Donna Mae has spent untold hours planning and trying to make the EWC work and her staff has contributed greatly,” the email read. “We would not have even been able to try to open a center without her generous offer of space, caring, and involvement.”
Todt on Tuesday stressed that the warming center will be operational as cold temperatures swoop in again later this week.
“Barring any problems with the door, we’ll have it open again either Thursday night or Friday. What we’re working on now is how to provide staffing for the coordinator position so that we have somebody there monitoring,” he said, adding “we ultimately need a shelter.”
rschafir@durangoherald.com