Glendale YMCA to lose Camp Fox lease

GLENDALE — For the first time in more than 80 years, the Catalina Island Conservancy will not be renewing its lease with the Glendale YMCA for Camp Fox, officials said Thursday.

Glendale YMCA officials had until Wednesday night to accept the terms of a letter of intent issued by the conservancy, which owns the property. But after a board meeting to discuss the issue Wednesday, YMCA Chief Executive Officer John Thomas said he called conservancy Chief Financial Officer Mel Dinkel to tell him YMCA officials would not sign the agreement because they wanted to keep discussing it.

“They left a message last night saying the board decided not to sign the agreement we were working on and hoped we would continue to meet,” Dinkel said.

But discussions have gone on long enough and the conservancy has to move on, he said.

“This has been the third time we put the deadline off on them coming to an agreement, and so what I told him was that we were sorry they were not able to come to an agreement and sign the [letter of intent], but we are going to move forward in trying to get the camp back open and operating at full capacity.”

The conservancy will now make the land available to other parties to manage, he said.

The two organizations have been going back and forth, trying to agree to terms of a new lease for the last few months. The conservancy wanted the YMCA to replace a failed septic system that Los Angeles County Heath Department cited it for, clean up a landfill and improve the fire-safety system at the campsite.

The estimated cost of the repairs is more than $1 million.

“They have known about the issues with the septic tank and the landfill for over three years and we’ve been trying to help them find a solution to those issues,” Dinkel said, adding that had the YMCA signed the agreement Wednesday night, they would have had to put down a $50,000 good-faith deposit committing to the maintenance repairs.

But Thomas said things weren’t that easy.

“We said to them, ‘There are still a lot of parts to this new lease that are different than the leases in our 83 years of history that we are not comfortable with,’” he said, adding that YMCA officials wanted more discussion.

Thomas noted that a change in the way the lease fee is calculated — going from a flat rate to a percentage-per-person rate, as well as the issue of the septic system and repair — made the new lease more complicated than past ones.

“We didn’t decide to leave camp on Wednesday,” he said “We’d like to stay at camp…. I can guarantee, in the year that I’ve been here, we’ve not been procrastinating, and we have not felt that this wasn’t of the highest of priorities.”

The Glendale YMCA founded Camp Fox on Catalina in 1923 and has run it on the leased site ever since. It leased the campsite from the conservancy, then sub-let it to different agencies throughout the year, reserving prime summer dates for local campers.

In preparation of the YMCA’s lease expiring on Dec. 31, the conservancy is looking for an interim camp site manager, and will be sending out request for proposals to other interested parties within the next month, Dinkel said.

But the Glendale YMCA will still be financially responsible for the repairs, Dinkel said.

“It’s a part of their current lease,” he said.

“It’s a responsibly for them to keep the camp in good order, and a lack of maintenance and attention caused it to be in the condition it’s in.”

The conservancy will try to work out a plan to make those repairs happen as painlessly as possible, Dinkel said.

“We are disappointed that [the Glendale YMCA’s] board was not able to figure out a way to accomplish all the things that needed to be done,” he said.

But the Glendale YMCA will still have an equal chance at attempting to lease the camp again when the requests go out, Dinkel said.

And, if another party ends up leasing the site, the Glendale YMCA will also have the chance to sub-let it from that other agency, he said.

“It’s just too bad,” Thomas said.

He would not comment further on the subject since he did not speak with Dinkel by press deadline on Thursday.

“This Glendale YMCA wants to continue taking kids to camp and preferably Camp Fox,” Thomas said. “If we have lost the lease, it is very much in our interest, and I will take the lead on it, to sub-lease or to be a part of a team going in.”

QUESTION

What do you think of the decision not to sign an agreement that would have renewed the Glendale YMCA’s lease at Camp Fox? E-mail gnp@latimes.com or write to News-Press and Leader Community Forum, 111 W. Wilson Ave. Suite 200, Glendale, CA 91203. Please include your name and tell us your hometown and phone number for verification purposes only.