Tyrone Area YMCA Board of Directors President John Harlow made a plea to the Tyrone Borough Council last evening on behalf of the debt-ridden organization. Harlow admitted mistakes were made, that actions were being taken to correct the procedures which allowed federal and state payroll taxes to go unpaid and asked the borough to help the venerable nonprofit organization regain its financial footing.
“I will take some of the blame for this,” Harlow said. There are times that we hold off on paying a bill here and there to make sure payroll is covered, but the last thing I would have imagined was not paying the IRS.” Harlow was referring to the almost $70,000 in back state and federal payroll taxes the organization owes.
Harlow pointed out that the Board of Directors was taking actions to address the situation. Those actions include a coupon book review of IRS payments, the recent hiring of a bookkeeper “who knows bookkeeping” and a review and possible cut of salaries from the director down to the custodians.
Harlow also contradicted the statements last week of YMCA Director Amy Hampton. “The projection of the YMCA closing its doors in six months is a little far fetched,” he said. “I guarantee that as long as I am President of this Board, I along with this Board will do everything possible to keep the doors open.” Harlow added Tuesday morning that the YMCA is solvent enough to stay open through the 2003 school year.
Last night he also said that he was asking the borough for help, not a bailout. “We are asking the Tyrone Borough to help us keep the doors open.”
When Harlow finished addressing Council, Councilmember Jeffrey Watson asked if Tyrone was the only municipality being asked to help and Harlow assured him other communities in Northern Blair have already been asked or will be contacted in the near future.
Mayor Pat Stoner thanked Harlow for his comments and said, “We will take it into consideration.” At that point the Council moved on to the rest of the agenda, which was light.
In other business, resident Dr. Jason Henninger D.O. asked if the Borough had an ordinance that pertained to motorcycle noise. “It’s not an issue at 6 p.m. but you do have people who work swing shifts and it is an issue at 10 p.m.,” he said. Stoner agreed that motorcycle exhausts can be quite loud and Borough Manager Al Drayovitch noted he would have the solicitor look into the matter.
