Boy Scouts bankruptcy won't change local programs, but legal battle brewing over camps
Shelly StallsmithPrograms and facilities run by a central Pennsylvania Boy Scouts of America council are continuing as normal, Ron Gardner said Tuesday.
“New Birth of Freedom Council has not filed for bankruptcy,” Gardner said in a statement to the York Daily Record. He is the scout executive and CEO of the council that serves Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Perry and York counties.
“Meetings and activities, district and council events, other Scouting adventures and countless service projects are taking place as usual," he said. "In short, there should be no change to the local Scouting experience.”
That includes speculation that properties owned by local councils might be sold off to help the national organization.
Gardner made the statement on the heels of the announcement that the Boy Scouts of America filed for Chapter 11 early Tuesday in the Delaware Bankruptcy Court. The filing ended months of speculation about the action amid declining membership and the potential for more than 1,500 child sexual abuse lawsuits.
A statement from BSA says it will use the “Chapter 11 process to create a Victims Compensation Trust that would provide equitable compensation to victims.”
Gardner said the filing only involves the national body, not the independent local chapters.
“The national organization of the Boy Scouts of America is the only entity involved in the Chapter 11 filing,” he said. “The New Birth of Freedom Council, which provides programming, financial, facility and administrative support to local units and individual Scouts in our area, is separate and distinct from the national organization.
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“Our camps, properties and all local contributions are controlled by our council.”
Legal battle over local properties expected
New Birth of Freedom is one of 17 councils in Pennsylvania. Each council owns at least one property that serves as a camp for its scouts.
New Birth of Freedom owns two – Camp Tuckahoe in Dillsburg, York County and Hidden Valley Scout Reservation in Loysville, Perry County -- and has access to a third, Camp Conewago in New Oxford, Adams County.
Pennsylvania Dutch Council, which serves Lancaster and Lebanon counties, owns Bashore Scout Reservation and J. Edward Mack Scout Reservation to serve its scouts.
While Gardner says those properties are controlled by local councils, an attorney who has tried thousands of child abuse cases said he is going to fight that. In bankruptcy, the Boy Scouts may be forced to sell off assets, including property, to pay creditors.
“Assets are separate – they’re going to make that argument, and we’re going to contest that,” Tim Kosnoff told USA TODAY. “Under the bylaws of the Boy Scouts they have absolute control over the assets that may be title to the council.”
BSA estimated its assets at $1 billion to $10 billion with liabilities between $500 million and $1 billion, according to the filing.
A USA TODAY report says councils in New York own properties worth just over $100 million, nearly half the value BSA reported in its 2018 tax filings for its properties.
New Birth of Freedom’s camp properties are assessed at just over a total of $5 million, according to local tax information. That’s just for the land. Add the buildings, and the total climbs to nearly $6 million.
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Camp Tuckahoe is a 1,300-acre mostly wooded tract outside Dillsburg that includes Memory Lake and is assessed at $4.6 million.
Loysville’s Hidden Valley Scout Reservation is just over 800 acres of mostly wooded land that sits along Sherman Creek. The land is assessed at $491,800.
Camp Conewago is just over 22 acres that sits in New Oxford where the South Branch of the Conewago Creek meets the Conewago Creek. The land is valued at $298,100.
New Birth of Freedom Council oversees the day-to-day operation of Camp Conewago, but ownership of the camp is held in a trust.
BSA has said scouting programs will continue “throughout this process and for many years to come. Local councils are not filing for bankruptcy as they are legally separate and distinct organizations.”
The term “legally separate and distinct organizations” are what attorneys for the victims believe will be at the heart of the legal battle that is bound to be waged. “The primary debate, they say, will center on property owned by the 266 regional councils and local troops,” according to USA TODAY.
Shelly Stallsmith is a trends reporter for the York Daily Record. She can be reached at mstallsmith@ydr.com or followed on Twitter at @ShelStallsmith.
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