Scout leaders plan legal action over camps’ sale

By William K. Alcorn

alcorn@vindy.com

MACEDONIA

Girl Scout leaders fighting the sale of several camps by the Girl Scouts of North East Ohio say they plan legal action to combat the action proposed by the organization’s board of directors.

In a statement Monday, the directors declined to change their earlier decision to sell Camps Crowell/Hilaka, Great Trail, Lejnar and Pleasant Valley.

Camp Sugarbush in Trumbull County, originally on the list of camps to be sold, was removed from that list in October.

In its statement, the board said an informal listening session, conducted Dec. 7 in response to a resolution passed Oct. 29 at a special meeting of the GSNEO General Assembly to halt the sale of four camp properties, produced no new information.

The board said the Dec. 7 meeting did not produce specific alternatives or ways to have more Girl Scouts use the camps or to pay for the deferred maintenance on the properties.

One of the contentions of Trefoil Integrity, a group of Girl Scout leaders opposed to the sale of the camps, is that the board failed to make a fair and comprehensive evaluation of all camp properties.

In its statement, however, the directors said, “The decision to sell our aging and under-utilized properties was thoroughly vetted previously by the Board. However, we wanted to acknowledge the [Oct. 29] resolution and to take this extra step [the Dec. 7 meeting] to ensure concerns and ideas were heard before we moved any further in the sale process.”

“As we expected, GSNEO voted to continue the process of selling all four camps. The camps are not under-utilized; in fact, many troops get shut out of camps because they are all booked up,” said Donna Spiegler, Trefoil spokeswoman.

Spiegler said GSNEO’s assessment of camp usage was based on 2008, the year after the merger of five councils, and on resident camping when most camping at the troop level is on the weekends.

There are 40,000 girls in the 14-county GSNEO that want to camp, Spiegler added.

“We asked for mediation. We asked if we could work this out, but the board and staff of GSNEO said ‘No’. So now, it becomes a legal fight,” she said.

Spiegler said Trefoil Integrity is raising money for its legal fund with a goal of $50,000 to combat the GSNEO board’s action.

Donations can be made to www.trefoilintegrity.org.