FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The city of Fairhope pledged $100,000 paid over four years to help the Fairhope Rotary Youth Club in its expansion goals for young children and teens in Fairhope and Point Clear.

The city council voted unanimously on Monday to approve the funds to help the club build a 4,950 square foot addition to the club, located on Young Street. The club is headed up by the Rotary Clubs in Fairhope and Point Clear and serves at-risk youth ages 4 through 18.

Executive Director Mark Stejskal said the club currently serves 83 kids and anticipates more than 120 during its June and July summer camp. He said the club currently meets in a gymnasium with two portable classrooms. He would like to add more classrooms, handicap accessible bathrooms, a computer lab and kitchen space.

“We need more classroom space,” he said. “The current facility will be owned by the city of Fairhope. We need approximately $340,000 and we are asking the city for $100,000 paid over four years to assist in the development of the facility.”

Stejskal said that the club also applied for a Baldwin County Impact 100 grant of $92,000 a that Fairhope Single Tax Corporation had pledged $100,000. The Rotary Clubs from Fairhope and Point Clear as well as the Fairhope Sunset Rotary pledged a combined $40,000.

Several people, including Fairhope resident and former Prichard mayor A.J. Cooper, said some in the community did not trust the club because of recent changes to the leadership.

The club was previously run by the Boys and Girls Clubs of South Alabama and Mobile. When the Boys and Girls Clubs pulled out of Baldwin County in 2009 the club was taken over by the Fairhope-Point Clear Youth Program Inc.

In public participation, Cooper indicated that he did not think everyone in the community supported the club.

“At this point if you don’t have everyone on board this is not a good thing to go for,” Cooper said. “This needs some more massaging, some more talking.

“You need to do some outreach,” he said. “You ned to tell the pastors, the heads of community groups. You’ve got to go to where the people are.”

Youth Club board member Valarie Chaney said she hopes the community would get behind the club.

“This is Fairhope, we can do great things here and it would benefit our children,” she said. “One day I would love to see our children sit in high places on the council. To be mayor one day. I would like to see that for our children.

“It’s time for a coming together and for these walls and barriers to be broken down.”