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Strapped Mountaineer Food Bank fires director

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Mountaineer Food Bank’s interim director, Dave Karr, was let go from his position by the agency’s board of directors Monday night, and there are no immediate plans to replace him, according to employees.

Stacy Burkhammer, who has served as the food bank’s financial director since September and its assistant director since the resignation of former executive director Carla Nardella in December, said the board chose to let Karr go primarily because of cost. Burkhammer and two other food bank employees are now sharing the executive director’s workload without change to their own salaries, she said.

“He was from Michigan, and we were paying all of his expenses, so with our financial situation, we decided we had the ability to handle things here locally,” she said.

Burkhammer said the agency would not seek another interim director, but would instead wait until it had secured its finances before seeking a permanent leader. The situation at MFB is murky — in July, its computer system crashed, resulting in a costly fix and the loss of the agency’s previous financial information. The food bank established a new governing board shortly after in August. Its previous board had been disbanded by Braxton County Circuit Court Judge Richard Facemire in August of 2013, after its executive director since 1981, Nardella, filed suit against the board, claiming that some members had missed meetings, held their positions on the board for too long and acted without a quorum, violating the board’s bylaws. The board had tried to fire Nardella the previous May, according to court documents. Nardella left her position in December.

Burkhammer said the agency always operates on a thin margin, but a combination of factors have led it to flounder in recent months.

“There were a lot of things that led up to this…

– See more at: http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20150311/GZ01/150319792/1419#sthash.s89lvGwZ.dpuf

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