Scouts consider selling N.H. camp

By Michael Lafleur, mlafleur@lowellsun.com Lowell Sun

A proposal to sell one of its New Hampshire Boy Scout camps to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is roiling the Yankee Clipper Council of the Boy Scouts of America, which serves Greater Lowell.

Council President John Skelton of Billerica and the council’s 36-member executive board have scheduled a March 22 vote on the proposed $2.8 million sale of Camp Onway, in Raymond, N.H. If the deal is approved by both the Scouts and the church, the 110-acre camp on the shore of Onway Lake would be sold at the end of the 2007 summer camp season. Camp Onway has been a Boy Scout camp since 1929.

According to the proposal — a copy of which is available at the Yankee Clipper Council Web site, www.yccbsa.org — the sale would add much-needed endowment and capital-improvement funds.

The council also would retain the right to use the camp for one week each summer season and during certain weeks during the off-season for up to six years after the sale, the proposal states.

Opponents of the sale have created their own Web site, www.SaveOurScoutCamps.com, and as of yesterday reported they had gathered about 400 petition signatures.

“I just don’t think it’s fair that we’re selling our camps,” said Matt Augeri, 40, of Londonderry, N.H., a longtime council volunteer who created the anti-sale Web site. “We’re really just stewards of these properties. The camps really belong to the kids themselves.”

Yankee Clipper Council Scout Executive Randy Larson yesterday said the decision to sell Camp Onway came after more than two years of deliberations.

“The attendance trends there have been very troubling,” Larson said. “There has certainly not been a rush to judgment. Unfortunately, a property sale is one of the most difficult and emotional decisions that any organization ever faces.”

According to the proposal — crafted by appointed, executive board members of a property-study committee — the council now owns three camps within 32.5 miles driving distance of each other in New Hampshire: Camp Onway, Wah-tut-ca Scout Reservation in Northwoods and Lone Tree Scout Reservation in Kingston.

Onway and Wah-tut-ca serve Boy Scouts; Lone Tree serves the council’s Cub Scout packs.

Both Onway and Lone Tree have seen declining attendance since 2000, and both have operated with annual deficits, according to the proposal. The nearly 300-acre Wah-tut-ca, however, has seen its attendance increase during that period. It generated $56,000 in revenue last year, while Onway lost $19,000 and Lone Tree lost $7,100.

The proposal concludes that Lone Tree should be kept open to focus on increasing Cub Scout membership. Because Wah-tut-ca offers “substantial space for additional campsites to support growth in attendance,” the proposal states that Camp Onway should be sold.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had been renting Camp Onway for several years. Its unsolicited offer to buy the property in 2005, along with an offer from the city of Raymond, is what led to the current proposal.

Augeri argued that the council should try to reduce camp deficits by increasing membership and put off a decision on the sale for at least five years.

“We will always be able to find a buyer,” he said. “This is not the first offer.”

Skelton said there is an ongoing membership drive, adding that the consolidation will allow the council to focus more resources on attracting inner-city youths to Scouting in places such as Lowell and Lawrence.

Larson said a marked decline in Scout troops in Lawrence over the past two decades has been a primary contributor to the drop in attendance at Camp Onway.

“We need to position ourselves for the future to reach out to other constituents in our council that we, quite frankly, haven’t done a good job at,” Skelton said.

The Yankee Clipper Council serves about 50 communities across a wide area of northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire, encompassing five council districts and serving the Massachusetts cities of Gloucester, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Methuen and Saugus, as well as Plaistow and Seabrook, N.H. The Greater Lowell District includes Billerica, Chelmsford, Dracut, Dunstable, Lowell, Tewksbury, Tyngsboro, Westford and Wilmington.

Most Greater Lowell District Scouts attend Wah-tut-ca Scout Reservation.