YMCA good at grants, but not for Pottstown
In eight years, YMCA has received $4.2M in state grants
POTTSTOWN » When the Pottstown YMCA merged first with the Phoenixville facility in 2007, and again in 2012 with the Philadelphia Freedom Valley YMCA, one of the selling points was the larger organization’s skill at obtaining grants.
As it turns out, they are quite good at it — just not for Pottstown.
Expertise not applied
“That was part of what we were supposed to get out of the merger, expertise in grant writing, expertise in financial and facility management,” said James Konnick, a former board president of the Pottstown YMCA.
But as it turns out, at least judging from the decision announced in November to close the Pottstown branch — a decision based in part on the expense of the kind of capital needs a grant could help pay for — Pottstown didn’t get any of that, said Konnick.
“They charged us for financial development, for grant writing, for facilities management, but they never delivered the goods,” said Konnick, who served in the task force which recently rejected the decision to shut down the Pottstown branch and instead called for it to remain open or be returned to Pottstown.
The charge Konnick was referencing is the approximately
$700,000 charged to the Pottstown branch annually for “administrative overhead” and “intra Y” fees.
By stunning coincidence, $700,000 has been cited by Philadelphia Freedom Valley CEO Shaun Elliott as the Pottstown branch’s operating deficit and one of the reasons to close it.
Many in the greater Pottstown community are now arguing that the YMCA is abandoning its mission to embrace diversity and help communities of all income levels, as it builds larger and more elaborate facilities in wealthier communities.
“That’s one of the problems I’m beginning to see with some of these nonprofits, they’re acting more like big corporations, chasing the money and trying to compete with commercial gyms like Planet Fitness,” said State Rep. Tom Quigley, R-44th Dist.
No grant help sought
Quigley said he was surprised when he saw Elliott quoted in a Mercury article as saying the Y didn’t get government grants.
“We’ve written letters of support for many organizations seeking support for state grants, but I checked with (State Rep. Tim Hennessey, R-26th Dist. and State Sen. John Rafferty, R44th Dist. and State Sen. Bob Mensch, R-24th Dist.) and none of us can ever remember being asked to write a letter for a grant for the Pottstown Y,” said Quigley.
Quigley and Hennessey, along with their opponents in the November elections, have all issued, statements opposing the closure.
As it turns out, other than in Pottstown, the YMCA’s record of obtaining state grants is quite impressive.
According to an analysis of Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grants provided by Quigley, the branches currently overseen by the Philadelphia Freedom Valley YMCA have received $8 million in state grants since 2000.
More than half of that amount — $4,250,000 — has been obtained since 2010.
However, the Mercury could find no evidence in the state database that such a grant had ever been awarded — or sought — on behalf of the Pottstown branch.
On Friday, Elliott responded to a Thursday Mercury query about whether his organization has ever applied for a grant to help with the Pottstown branches capital expense issues with the following statement:
“We cannot speak to why grants were not sought prior to 2013 for Pottstown. Despite having applied for funding since 2011, none of our branches have received any RACP funding. Since 2013, the Philadelphia Freedom Valley YMCA has covered annual operating deficits by the Pottstown branch totaling $3.5 million and invested $1 million into the building. We have also worked to secure donor support for Pottstown since 2013 and have found some success around the community from various donors like the United Way of Greater Philadelphia, Montgomery County Economics, Pottstown Health and Wellness, YUSA and Best Buy.”
Elliott added: “The RACP funding you point to from 2000 through 2011 covered new branch builds and existing branch renovations.”
He concluded by noting: “Your coverage of this building is misleading the community about our future in Pottstown. We are members of the Pottstown community and we will continue to serve our members with physical locations in the community.”
He did not respond to a follow up query asking if his response should be interpreted to mean that in fact, since 2013, Philadelphia Freedom Valley YMCA has never sought any grants to help with the building problems at the Pottstown branch.
Elliott has stated one of the reasons for closing the Pottstown branch is it needs $11.5 million worth of work in the next 10 years, although the actual additional amount may be closer $6 million if one takes into account what would normally be spent on capital maintenance
Grant for closing branch
And although there appear to have been no grants sought for the Pottstown branch that is now scheduled to be closed, grants were obtained in 2010 for a branch now slated for closure.
A $500,000 state grant was obtained in 2010 for work at the Hatboro YMCA, according to the analysis Quigley commissioned.
Less than three months after Elliott was hired in 2015, the Philadelphia Freedom Valley YMCA proposed closing both the Hatboro and Abington branches and replacing them with a combined $30 million branch in Upper Moreland Township.
Last August, the plan for a new 100,000 square foot facility in the former Willow Grove Day Camp off Danville Road was approved by the Upper Moreland Board of Commissioners.
Construction has already begun.
When asked earlier this month why none of the $19.4 million “cash-in-hand” listed on the Philadelphia Freedom Valley YMCA’s form 990 tax return for 2016 was available for improvements at the Pottstown branch, Elliott replied “the cash-onhand money to which you refer is going to the Willow Grove facility that is replacing the Abington and Hatboro branches we are closing.”
“We are running a capital campaign for this new facility as the cost is well over the $19 million cash on hand,” he added.
The median household income in Upper Moreland Township, according to U.S. Census estimates, is $85,000. The median household income in Pottstown Borough, according to the U.S. Census, is $45,000.
Other Y grants
Other YMCAs not connected to Philadelphia Freedom Valley also seem to have a knack for getting state grants.
Just last year, the Fairless Hills YMCA in Bucks County, which is not affiliated with the Philadelphia Freedom Valley organization, obtained a $2 million for a “capital revitalization.”
In 2003, the Indian Valley YMCA, a Montgomery County branch also not associated with the Philadelphia Freedom Valley organization, obtained a $1 million state grant.
“I’m surprised that Freedom Valley never sought out any grants for the Pottstown branch if it was such a problem for so many years as they say,” said Konnick.
Resolutions and petitions
In the meantime, community opposition to the closure continues to grow.
In addition to the rejection of the closure by Pottstown School Board, Pottstown Borough Council, Pottstown Chapter of the NAACP and the Pottstown Area Regional Planning Committee, new voices are being added every day.
On Tuesday, the Pottsgrove School Board unanimously approved a resolution opposing the closure, according to the Sanatoga Post.
Also on Tuesday, Pam Hacker, the Democrat running against Hennessey in the November election, issued a statement on the closure which reads, in part:
“When a public committee looked into replacing programs that would be lost due to this decision they determined instead that Philadelphia Freedom Valley YMCA had not kept commitments made at the time of the merger to the Pottstown YMCA,” she wrote.
“I strongly support those resolutions and call for Freedom Valley to make the needed repairs. I am happy that our elected officials are now involved, and I feel confident that we can work together on this important issue. At the very least, hopefully we can get an extension on the deadline that Freedom Valley imposed.”
And as of Thursday, an online petition opposing the YMCA closure had already gained nearly 900 signatures.
Last week, the Pottstown chapter of the NAACP was collecting signatures the old-fashioned way, face to face, at the Pottstown branch.
On April 26, at 7 p.m., members from NAACP’s Pottstown branch will be at the Pottstown Campus of Montgomery County Community College with another table to give the public the opportunity to sign the petition and to organize with other community members.