Northern Mercer County residents may soon see a flyer in their mailbox asking them to donate money to Greenville Area Leisure Services Association.

GALSA Executive Director Erik Bielata explained Monday the fundraising brochure. He applied for a grant to cover publishing costs, which are estimated at $3,000 to $5,000, depending on quantity.

The brochure is one creative idea GALSA plans to use to raise money to prevent the organization from going under.

Board members will spend the next several months brainstorming other fundraising methods to pay for maintaining the sports complex in West Salem Township, Riverside Park and the Rec Center and operating GALSA programs and activities.

The brochures will ask people to donate money to GALSA through a fund Bielata is setting up with the Northern Mercer County Community Foundation, a branch of the Shenango Valley Foundation.

People can also send donations directly to GALSA, but Bielata said the foundation, which would report any donations to GALSA, makes donors feel safer. The foundation would get 1 percent of each donation for overseeing the fund.

The board may also consider reducing expenses by spending less on facilities and maintenance work and reducing programs and activities they offer. They may also raise user fees in the fall for any activity or program run by GALSA.

GALSA’s general operations budget of $258,200 for this year includes filling a projected $60,000 deficit with a savings account transfer.

The $60,000, which will be used for general expenses and personnel, was money GALSA saved from Greenville Area School District donations because they knew the district wasn’t going to donate money this year.

The school district had a contract with GALSA to contribute $400,000 over a five-year period, a deal that ended in 2005. GALSA asked the school board in January for $80,000 from the district to cover administrative costs, but the board said they couldn’t afford the donation.

Also missing from the budget is revenue from Kids Korner Day Care, a GALSA-owned business they sold Nov. 17. GALSA made $14,000 in 2005 from Kids Korner, which the board sold to Bielata for $12,500.

Bielata then signed over the rights to the day care’s name to Greenville’s First Baptist Church, where GALSA had rented space for Kids Korner.

The church, which now runs Kids Korner, was the only other bidder for the day care. The board chose Bielata’s cash offer over the church’s offer to donate half of the day care’s yearly net profit for two years to GALSA.