OAKLAND SOCIAL CLUB STRUGGLES TO PAY BILLS

Most recently, the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue in February filed a lien for $131,495 in delinquent sales and employer withholding taxes.

Also in February, the Allegheny County Health Department filed judgments for $7,000 in fines stemming from problems with the club’s indoor swimming pool.

The association was ordered by the department to close the pool in October until it could fix long-standing health code violations. Some of the problems included lack of a bathing manager to ensure that daily water quality readings were being performed, and failure to conduct weekly bacteria tests, putting swimmers at risk for gastrointestinal illness.

When an inspector returned for a follow-up in December, he found the pool was open despite the closure order and unresolved violations, according to inspection reports.

Mr. Trimbur, president of the Trimbur Insurance Agency in Murrysville, declined to talk about the pool or the association’s deteriorating financial condition, noting that the club was privately owned.

In a statement emailed to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, he lamented the challenges of maintaining the club’s membership ranks in a city with a declining population.

In the past, Mr. Trimbur has said the association was counting on an undisclosed amount of lease payments from an upscale hotel being built on adjacent property owned by the club to ensure its long-term future.

Developers recently broke ground on the project — a 10-story Marriott “Autograph Collection” hotel with a rooftop lobby and sweeping views of Oakland — which is set to open in the fall of 2018.

Mr. Trimbur declined to say if the club had started receiving any revenue from the project, or when lease payments might begin.

In his statement, he said that during construction of the hotel, “The PAA is going through a transitional phase and there are economic challenges,” adding that management was working to address the club’s “tax and fiscal issues.”

“We invite city and county officials to work with our board of directors in a cooperative spirit to preserve and advance the club,” he said, calling the 109-year-old organization “a Pittsburgh treasure.”