PRESS: TOWN, YMCA STILL TALKING
The lawsuit that redbankgreen reported Red Bank officials had authorized over the Children’s Cultural Center has not been filed, and the two sides are continuing to talk, today’s Asbury Park Press reports.
From the story:
The fingers of borough officials haven’t pressed the “sue” button yet over what happens to the Children’s Cultural Center building, which is now up for sale.
“No lawsuit has been filed yet,” said Mayor Pasquale “Pat” Menna. “There has been some constructive engagement and dialogue. We’re all hoping to arrive at a satisfactory resolution.”
Still not publicly answered is whether the Monmouth Street building, which was the borough’s police station until it was sold to the Community YMCA for $1 in 2000, reverts back to the borough, if it is sold and not used by some sort of nonprofit community group.
Last week, Borough Attorney Tom Hall told redbankgreen that the council had authorized him to file suit, which he expected to do by early this week.
But Menna told Press reporter Larry Higgs that he’s not yet ready to disclose what was discussed at an executive session of the governing body held with Hall last week. And Hall’s partner, Ken Pringle, appeared to throw cold water on the notion that the borough has the right to reclaim the building, though that appears to have been the intent of the local government in mid-1999, when Red Bank was preparing to sell the 1892 red brick structure to Kids Bridge for $1. Kids Bridge later merged into the Children’s Cultural Center, operated by the Community YMCA.
“The urgency [for the executive session] was it’s going to be sold. The parties (the YMCA and Red Bank) have to protect their interests,” Menna said. “Both sides are talking.”
Borough Attorney Kenneth Pringle said that the reverter clause isn’t in the deed.
“There is not much we can talk about,” he said. “There was no reverter clause in the deed.”
Higgs also dug up the exact sum that the YMCA claims it is owed by the borough for its portion of costs related to the renovation of the Relief Engine Company firehouse, which is attached to the cultural center structure on the Drummond Place side: $553,777.