https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Boy-Scouts-reject-Milton-postponement-12903623.php
Boy Scouts will not delay Boyhaven deal
Updated 11:01 am, Thursday, May 10, 2018
MILTON - The fate of the town's deal to purchase Boyhaven, the 300-acre Boy Scout camp, looks grim.
Moments after the Town Board voted to ask for a sixth postponement on the closing, the board of the Twin Rivers Council of the Boy Scouts of American voted unanimously Wednesday night to deny Milton any more chances if it doesn't close on the property by 1 p.m. Friday.
Mark Switzer, the executive and CEO of the Twin Rivers Council, said if the town doesn't come up with the $1 million by the appointed deadline, it will go back out to bid with the property.
"Our intention was to sell to the town," Switzer said. "It was an ideal opportunity because the council members want to preserve it as green space."
Switzer also said the town never asked for a formal postponement. If it did so, the Council, which has been holding onto the land for the town, would likely ask for some payment for the town's continual deferment of the closing.
"We are the Boy Scouts of America," Switzer said. "We hold ourselves to the highest standards. But it's costing our program and if the town doesn't close by Friday, we are moving on."
Larry Woolbright, the chair of the town's planning board who has been working, who has been working on the deal for more than a year said he believes the deal is dead.
"We are done," Woolbright said.
The plan for the purchase was unraveling slowly as the town continually missed closing deadlines. The deal was further damaged after an anonymous donor, who was willing to give the Twin Rivers Council $500,000 toward the town's purchase, withdrew. The donor, whom only Woolbright knew, was being hounded to reveal his identity.
"Right before the donor withdrew, he said to me, 'I didn't know it would be so hard to give away half a million dollars,'" Woolbright said.
The Boy Scouts, knowing the loss of the donor was debilitating for the town, gave the Town Board one more chance to close on the deal.
Thursday's meeting, heavily attended by Boyhaven supporters who carried signs reading "Buy Boyhaven," was meant to come up with a plan. Instead, the Town Board took no action. Thus the crushing of the deal.
"This is the most disgusting thing in the world," said town Councilwoman Barbara Kerr. "In not going to blame the Boy Scouts. They have been patient and given us every chance. It's the town and the board. It's very obvious someone is working against us."
