Attorney General's Help Sought in YMCA Fight

Photos by Evan Brandt

About 40 people showed up for Tuesday's meeting called to find ways to prevent the closure of the Pottstown YMCA branch.

The fight to prevent the closure of the Pottstown YMCA branch soon may be taken up in Harrisburg.

At least two Pottstown Borough officials -- Mayor Stephanie Henrick and Deputy Police Chief Michael Markovich -- have contacted the office of Attorney General Josh Shapiro asking for help to prevent the closure.

Specifically, Henrick, an attorney, said she spoke with the office of the senior deputy attorney general for charitable organizations, which outlined the process for filing a formal complaint.

She said it has to be made in writing, and evidence provided, before they will investigate, something she hopes to organize shortly.

The Rev. Vernon Ross, pastor of Bethel Community Church,

said he once served on the board of the Philadelphia-Freedom

Valley YMCA and he is glad he no longer does given the

actions that board has endorsed.

Markovich, on the other hand, went straight to the top.

In a letter to Shapiro read aloud at the meeting by Invictus Ministries Inc. Pastor Bishop Everett Debnam, Markovich wrote "I have seen Pottstown get left behind when it comes to the rest of Montgomery County."

"Everything Pottstown offered its youth, seems to be closed," said Markovich, who was joined by Upper Pottsgrove Police Chief Francis Wheatley and Lower Pottsgrove Police Chief Michael Foltz in expressing concern that crime among juveniles my go up this summer if the YMCA closes.

"One thing that doesn't close, is the streets and the corners," Markovich wrote. "Once the children end up there, it is usually no turning back."

"It's a cycle," he wrote, "that we are trying to break. That's why we need to put the brakes on the YMCA closing. We're reaching out to you for help."

Further, Bob Stauffer, who was on the Pottstown YMCA Board of Directors in the 1990s, offered up a formal resolution calling for Shapiro's office to investigate what he says is behavior at variance with the YMCA mission.

Those were just a few of the more serious actions discussed during last night's second meeting of the coalition of activists and groups -- led by the Pottstown chapter of the NAACP -- working to reverse the decision by the Philadelphia-Freedom Valley YMCA to close the Pottstown branch on North Adams Street.

The meeting was held at the YWCA Tri-County Area on King Street.

Local attorney Bob Stauffer

holds a resolution calling

for an investigation by PA

Attorney General Josh Shapiro

Lawrence Cohen, who is both a member of the NAACP and the task force put together by the Y which defied instructions and argued to keep the branch open, has been penning letters to large donors of the Conshohocken-based organization to let them know how their money is being used.

These include the Mary Porter Foundation, the Christina and Lawrence Smith Foundation, Cigna Foundation, Comcast, Wawa Foundation BB & T Bank and Pew Charitable Trust to name a few.

And Shona Williams is in charge of writing letters to donors who have given $25,000 or less to the Philadelphia-Freedom Valley YMCA.

"We're raising our voices, and we have so many voices, so we can offer so many perspectives," she said.

One perspective the group hopes to harness are those of two members of the World Champion Philadelphia Eagles -- Chris Long and Malcolm Jenkins.

A letter from NAACP branch President Johnny Corson to the Chris Long Foundation begins with an important caveat: "We aren't asking for money."

Rather, Corson's letter is instead asking for Long to add his voice to the call for the Y to remain open. "We can't let this happen to our young people -- they need and deserve their Y -- for sports, mentoring, community, stability and opportunity," according to the letter.

From left Lawrence Cohen, Johnny Corson 

and Everett Debnam.

It also notes "the association recently closed an in-town YMCA in Norristown, leaving young people with a local Y.

Instead of serving communities where the need for  YMCA services is greatest, the Association is choosing to build 'county club' fitness centers serving wealthy suburbanites."

Despite the united voice of the community and its officials and remaining institutions, "YMCA management is ignoring the needs of our youth," read Corson's letter. "We need the power of your voice to help us stop this unnecessary closure that will devastate our community's young people."

Whether or not the star power of Chris Long or Jenkins can help reverse this course or not, there are also efforts underway to organize a march on the Philadelphia-Freedom Valley YMCA headquarters in Conshohocken in the hopes that the power of people can get the job done.

A date for the march has not yet been set, although Flag Day was mentioned as one possibility, so keep your calendars as open as you can folks. A date will likely be announced on the new Save the Pottstown YMCA Facebook page, which you can join by clicking here.

The march would be the perfect opportunity to deliver the petition calling for the Y to remain open, which now making the rounds and has already collected more than 1,200 signatures. You can sign that petition by clicking here.

The date of the next meeting has not yet been set.

Here are the Tweets from the meeting:

Rising Resistance to Closure of Pottstown YMCA