Rec center granted delinquent tax bailout

The Edgar May Health and Recreation Center got a reprieve for its own fiscal health, when the Springfield Select Board approved a plan that will allow the nonprofit center to pay its $100,000 in delinquent property taxes.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20100616/NEWS02/706169935/1003/NEWS02     # # # # Springfield rec center gets help in overdue tax ordeal  •  Rutland Herald          By Susan Smallheer Staff Writer - Published: June 16, 2010  •  SPRINGFIELD — The Edgar May Health and Recreation Center got a reprieve for its own fiscal health, when the Springfield Select Board approved a plan that will allow the nonprofit center to pay its delinquent property taxes.  •  The center, which opened 31/2 years ago, was $100,000 behind in its taxes dating back three years. The center is now exempt from school taxes.  •  On a 4-1 vote Monday, the Select Board approved allowing the recreation center’s board to essentially borrow the money from its $2.7 million trust account, which came from the $3 million seed money from the state. The town received the $3 million in exchange for hosting the Southern State Correctional Center in Springfield, which opened in 2003.  •  About 70 people attended the public hearing on amending the town’s agreement with the Southern Vermont Recreation Center Foundation, the parent organization of the recreation center, with both supporters and critics speaking at length.  •  Many people, several of whom have been critical of the recreation center since its inception, said the recreation center board was being treated better than any other Springfield taxpayer.  •  Select Board member Terri Benton, the lone voice against the tax bailout plan, said the recreation center was doing good work and was a plus for the community, but that it should pay its taxes like any other business.  •  Under the plan worked out between Town Manager Robert Forguites and the recreation center board, if the recreation center doesn’t have the money to pay its taxes, it can use the so-called prison fund, but it forfeits any rights to capital gains from the fund until the fund returns to $2.7 million.  •  Like anyone with money in the stock market, the trust fund has lost value, said Board Chairman Kristi Morris, who supported amending the agreement between the town and the health center board.  •  Several townspeople and members of the board spoke in support of both the tax plan and the center itself, noting that it was a tremendous asset to the community, it was helping to improve the health of area residents, and like every business in Vermont was having a hard time financially because of the downturn in the economy.  •  Christian Craig, executive director of the Edgar May Center, said the Springfield center and another in Derby Line were the only two nonprofit recreation centers in the state that paid property taxes.  •  All YMCAs in the state are tax-exempt, he said.  •  A new $14 million recreation and swim center in Hartford is tax-exempt through a creative plan where Hartford accepted ownership and leases it to the nonprofit group that runs it, Craig said.  •  “We haven’t figured it out yet,” Craig said.  •  There are 1,100 Springfield residents who are members of the center, which has the lowest membership fees in the state, Craig said. The center serves 35 area towns, and has a total membership of 2,100 people, he said, with 15 percent of the members receiving some kind of scholarship.  •  He said 350 to 400 people a day use the center during the warm-weather months, down from 500 people a day during the winter.  •  But the four board members who voted in favor of the bailout, said that to let the center go for tax sale would send the wrong message to both people in town and others, and create a negative image for the town.  •  Others thought the recreation center foundation should be allowed to fail.  •  “They should be able to fall apart,” Walter Clark said. “Think twice before you open up Pandora’s box,” he added.  •  Tom Bishop, a local landlord, urged the board to hold the foundation accountable, and said the users of the recreation center should be the supporters. But for every critic, there were more supporters.  •  Don Hinckley of NBC Solid Surfaces, a local business, said his employees were dependent on the center. Hinckley is a board member.  •  He said the rec center was a “very positive” factor in attracting employees.Beth Ann Drinker, a member of the parents group and the mother of swim team members, said the facility was a boon to her family.  •  “If you want families to stay in Springfield,” Drinker said, the town must help the center to survive.  •  “To put it in danger,” she said, “would be to stop some of the momentum” in Springfield.  •  The majority of the board agreed, while saying they were unhappy the center had not paid its taxes.  •  Putting a lock on the door would solve nothing, said Kristi Morris, board chairman. Morris and Forguites both noted that the center could have opted to be paid the $3 million up front to help with construction, but it instead proposed the trust fund scenario.  •  “I’m hoping this is a one-time deal,” Morris said. “We’re putting some faith in them.”  •