Girls’ program is losing money

Time after time, those in charge of a new Baldwin County wilderness program created to rehabilitate local girls gave assurances that the program would stop bleeding money, county finance officials said.

But the county now faces a loss of at least $900,000 on the Girls Residential Wilderness Center program that was supposed to be self-sufficient, records show. That is on top of a shortfall exceeding $800,000 in fiscal 2007, which ended Sept. 31.

Amid the budget problems, the program’s assistant director, Jennifer Hadley, resigned March 4. That same day, she accused county juvenile detention chief Bill Ford of inappropriate behavior toward her and of misrepresenting the program’s financial outlook to elected leaders.

Girls’ program is losing money