Click here to view First Floor Planned Renovations
BUILDING UPDATES PHOTO ALBUM
The Y is starting the new year by moving forward with a plan to repair the damage caused by the burst water pipes, and renovate the facilites with a fresh new look. Following are some images of the existing conditions, along with the proposed new palette of finishes and colors which will be the first step of the renovation.
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YMCA Rehires Former Director to Guide Reopening
By PATRICK COBBS
Staff Writer - The Germantown Chronicle (November 26, 2009)
The YMCA of Germantown has been closed to the public for nearly a year and a half but while it’s still deep in legal and financial battles, a recent decision by its board of directors may indicate some light at the end of the tunnel. On November 18 the board voted to hire former YMCA of Germantown director Pete Smith, who twice before restored the organization to financial stability, to help get the community programs up and running once more.
“I kind of look at myself as being the one to get things moving here,” Smith told the board prior to its vote that night. “But it’s going to be a team effort and I’m going to look at calling on you a lot.”
Smith got to work at the building the very next day.
Officially, he will be a consultant. His mission is to take stock of the building and the organization’s financial health. He will assess the damages that have set in since the July 2008 sprinkler pipe burst that closed the Y, and the work that has been done since then by volunteers and contractors. Then he will form a plan for how to rebuild what he sees as a new community institution that is not the YMCA.
“I think we need to be clear about that,” he said his first day on the job. “It’s not going to be the YMCA.”
Smith, who spent his career working for the YMCA of the USA, was referring to that organization’s June decision to revoke the Germantown Y’s charter following almost a year of closure. With that came losses of resources, including roughly $85,000 per year in funding through the United Way. This change alone means the fitness and community programs cannot be exactly the same as they were before.
“It now becomes very important to operate in a much different light,” Smith said. “The fitness center has to run at a profit… And the next thing we need to do is, we need to get the kids back in the Y because that’s what we’re there for… and that would be the after school program and, when summer comes around, the day camp.”
At the meeting November 18, board Secretary Connie Billé called this strategy a “staged opening.” Smith will be there to identify what stages to get in place at what time. He will help the Y build its staff back up and eventually assist it in finding a new, permanent executive director.
Challenges ahead
To do all of this, Smith plans on consistent, almost daily contact with the Germantown Y’s board of directors, which was officially reformed in August when ten new members joined (over objection from some standing board members), courtesy of a grass-roots-organized membership vote. The board will also be working its way through numerous other challenges, the most recent being an $86,000 lawsuit against the Y by Jan Rubin Associates (JRA), the firm that set up millions in tax-credit funding to the men’s residence portion of the Y during the early 1990s.
The suit alleges breach of contract by the Y on a 2007 agreement for JRA to close out the first round of tax credits from the 1990s and initiate a new round. The Y stopped paying JRA this year, after $350,000 in fees and no new application for the second round of tax credits, according to Germantown Y board minutes and the JRA claim.
In addition, the Y faces a $69,000 suit by Proaction Carpet Cleaning and Restoration, which did water damage work on the building immediately following the flood, and it has yet to reach a settlement with both the New Hampshire Insurance Company and the Philadelphia firm Funari Public Adjusters, which the Germantown Y fired before completing its negotiations with New Hampshire Insurance.
Several board members including Board Chair and Chair of the Finance Committee Jim Foster [who is also the publisher of Germantown Newspapers] consider these last three matters close to resolution. A check for $131,000 from New Hampshire Insurance may be some indication of that hope, though the Y has not officially accepted the check.
In the most basic terms, the Germantown Y still has a numbers problem. Although the residence portion of the facility, which occupies the large rear section of the building and can house over 100 individuals, still operates in the black thanks to public funding through the Office of Supportive Housing, it does not make enough money to sustain the fitness and community portions of the Y, and its revenue is not intended for that purpose anyway.
Remaining Repairs
Contractors and volunteers have done enough repair work to the building since it closed that what remains to be done is essentially cosmetic. The board’s Recovery Committee, headed by architect Peter Bentivegna and construction manager Dan McDevitt, estimate that remaining work will cost about $250,000 to complete. One advantage of having Smith on the job is that he can help the board prioritize those repairs according to what the new programs will need, Bentivegna said.
One set of numbers questions hinges on where the Y will get the money it needs for the remaining repairs and for new staff hires to support programs. Many on the board, as well as Smith, are hoping some of that will come from renewed community interest.
Another piece of the numbers puzzle could be a loss-of-business claim the Y has yet to file with its insurer.
Foster has begun work with Apex Integrated Solutions of New Jersey, the Y’s accounting firm, to put together solid estimates for how much business the Y lost from having to be closed for so long, he said. But here’s where an important wrinkle comes in.
Financial records and board minutes from the time following the flood until the board reorganized in August are still being pieced together. Board members like Foster hope these records will not only help with the loss-of-business claim but might also answer some lingering questions.
One large unanswered question is why the facility remained closed for so long when it apparently had more than enough cash on hand to make the building repairs at the time of the flood, or shortly afterward. According to internal financial documents prepared by Apex in December 2008 the Y had more than $440,000 in cash after six months of inactivity due to the flood, enough money to cover the current cost of repairs plus all the outstanding legal claims.
Tensions remain on the merged board of directors over this and other issues. For example, former Board Chair Marion Taylor announced November 18 that she had possession of “formalized minutes” of the board meetings from the time period in question, but she declined to make them available to the current board members because she did not trust their reactions.
“I’m not gonna share them until I can get someone to witness what I am sharing,” she said.
Nevertheless, the consensus with the organization is to move forward. And on his second day at the facility - the same one he ran previously for a total of 10 years - Pete Smith was moving forward as well. Even though it hurt.
“I’m walking around with a smile on my face here,” he said. “I’m smiling to keep from crying.”
He wasn’t alone. At the board meeting, 12th Ward Democratic Leader Greg Paulmier was eager to see progress too. He wanted to be a part of it, and he thought the rest of the community would feel the same way.
“Give us all something to do,” he said. “I think the wealth in Germantown is that we all want to be part of making things better.”
Current YMCA of German-town Board members include Peter Bentivegna, Connie Billè, Pamela Bracey, Rev. Ann Colley, Jim Foster, Ahlia Love, Dan McDevitt, Thomas Norfleet, Floretta Tiggett, Marion Taylor, Derek Green, Marcus Allen, Curnel Bridges and Fred Lewis.