Scouts accept bid to save camp land

Wednesday, May 16, 2001

By BRIAN ABERBACK
Staff Writer

Boy Scout officials voted Tuesday to accept a $5.1 million bid for historic Camp Glen Gray, sealing a deal that protects the 750-acre Bergen County tract from development.

Most of the camp will become public parkland under the agreement, which ends months of speculation about the fate of the land -- the largest remaining privately owned swath of open space in Bergen.

The Northern New Jersey Council of the Boy Scouts, which had vowed not to sell the tract in Mahwah and Oakland to developers, upheld that promise by voting overwhelmingly in favor of the deal.

"We certainly wanted to see [Glen Gray] remain as open space," said A. Curts Cooke, a council executive and chairman of the council committee on the Glen Gray sale.

Cooke said about 55 of the 60 council members voted to accept the offer, which was submitted jointly by the Trust for Public Land, Bergen County, and the Bergen County Y, a Jewish Community Center.

The council hopes the closing on the sale will take place by January, Cooke said.

County Executive William "Pat" Schuber said in a statement that the council had done a "wonderfully generous thing for the community in accepting our offer. Adding Glen Gray to the inventory of open space in the Highlands Region has been one of my highest priorities, and I am eagerly looking forward to the near future when we can share this pristine woodlands with people who enjoy the outdoors."

The county probably will take about 650 acres of Glen Gray, a maze of trails and wilderness in the foothills of the Ramapo Mountains. The remaining 100 acres would go to the Washington Township-based YJCC, which wants to use the core camp area for a day camp program.

It's not yet known how the $5.1 million purchase will be split. The camp is actually being purchased by the Trust for Public Land, a non-profit group dedicated to preserving open space. It will acquire the property with its own money and funds from Bergen County and the YJCC. Terrance Nolan, project manager for the Trust for Public Land, said he would begin meetings immediately to decide how the camp's acreage, and corresponding costs, will be divided.

"We haven't determined what any of this will look like," Nolan said. "Our next step is to sit with all the partners and address all their interests."

The Friends of Glen Gray (FOGG), a private group of former Scouts and Scoutmasters who want to preserve Scouting at the camp, are also interested in acquiring a portion of the core area, which includes a lake, cabins, and a trading post. Glen Gray is the country's longest continuously operating Boy Scout camp.

FOGG has set a goal of $1 million to contribute to the sale so that it can continue using part of the camp for Scouting.

The county will pay for its portion of Glen Gray with money set aside in its Open Space, Recreation, and Farm and Historic Preservation Trust Fund. It also has state Green Acres funds available to use toward the purchase and may apply for further Green Acres funding. The Trust for Public Land will contribute an undetermined amount to the county from its own funds, raised through public and private donations.

John Schepisi, an attorney representing the YJCC, said it is difficult to estimate how much the organization will pay. He said the YJCC's recreation needs may overlap those of the county, making it difficult to estimate how many acres the group will need.

Whether the 85-year-old Scouting tradition continues at Glen Gray remains to be seen.

"We are absolutely confident that we can work something out with the YJCC, Bergen County, and the Trust for Public Land to make [Glen Gray] easily accessible for everyone," said FOGG communications director Phil Cantor. He said that FOGG would want to use the camp primarily between September and June.

"Being able to take a day walk is not the same as overnight camping, learning wilderness skills, and hearing the same scary stories year after year," Cantor said.

After Tuesday's vote, Cooke of the Scout council said he, too, thinks the Trust for Public Land will be able to work with FOGG.

"We as Scouters encourage the Trust to continue to work with FOGG," Cooke said.

The vote caps months of conjecture over whether Glen Gray's rugged terrain would be preserved or fall prey to bulldozers.

The Scout council, citing financial needs and saying the camp was expendable, put Glen Gray on the market in January. The council will use the money from the camp's sale for a Scouting endowment. The organization was hit by financial woes when some United Way chapters and private donors withdrew funding in the wake of last year's U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the right of the Boy Scouts of America to bar gay troop leaders.

The county and the trust had originally submitted a combined bid of $4 million for the property, but there had been reports of developers offering nearly twice that amount to build luxury houses at Glen Gray. Last week, the county and the Trust for Public Land joined forces with the YJCC, which had made its own $5.1 million offer, to avoid a bidding war.

Camp Glen Gray was founded in 1917 by "Uncle" Frank Fellows Gray, one of the fathers of American Scouting. The camp has been used by four generations of Scouts.

Environmentalists heralded the vote as protecting the middle of a belt of green space -- including the Ramapo Valley County Reservation, the Ramapo State Forest, and Ringwood State Park -- that extends from Northern New Jersey into New York.

"I'm heartened and ecstatic," said Dennis Miranda, a project manager for the New Jersey Conservation Foundation. "Much of the Ramapos is already protected. This is a very large parcel that would have left a gaping hole if it had been turned into subdivisions."

Staff Writer Brian Aberback's e-mail address is aberback@northjersey.com

http://www.bergen.com/news/scoutsba200105163.htm