The Tyrone YMCA Board of Directors accepted the resignation of its president, John Harlow. Harlow faxed his two-page resignation letter to the YMCA Wednesday evening shortly before the 7 p.m. meeting. A copy of that letter was also released to area media organizations, including The Daily Herald.
\n\u201cDue to the wishes of the Tyrone YMCA Board of Directors, I am resigning my position as president of the Board and my position on the Board effective immediately,\u201d the letter reads.
\n\u201cI would like to thank the Board of Directors for their concern and love of the Tyrone Area YMCA,\u201d he further said.
\nThe resignations come in the wake of the revelation that the venerable nonprofit organization did not pay its share of state and federal payroll taxes, to the tune of almost $70,000.
\nHarlow addresses a number of issues in his letter, including the accomplishments during his term \u2014 such as improvements to the Children\u2019s Center and increased fundraising.
\nThe crux of the letter deals with Harlow\u2019s knowledge of the current financial situation and where the responsibility for it rests. Harlow started on the Board in July of 1999 and was president from January 2001 until his resignation at last night\u2019s meeting. He also served as interim Operations Manager, along with Mike Yeaton and Keith Beisel, from October 2001 through March of this year, due to the abscence of a director. Yeaton and Beisel no longer sit on the Board, a point Harlow makes in his letter.
\nThe only person who served on the Executive Committee prior to this February is myself,\u201d he wrote. Harlow also points to board members Jim Bigelow, Laura Burghard, Dave Russell and points out that they did not notice the unpaid taxes, as well. \u201cThe Executive Committee receives reports no different than any other Board member,\u201d Harlow wrote.
\nMike Blaska, a 23 year volunteer veteran of the YMCA who has served as Vice President of the Board since January of 2002, and has been a member since January of 2001, said that he went into last Thursday\u2019s meeting not knowing the Executive Committee would be under attack.
\n\u201cI was under the impression that it was a work session to meet with members of the community and discuss the situation,\u201d he said Thursday morning. He pointed out that a motion was made, and seconded, that the Executive Committee resign.
\n\u201cThe community did not ask for the resignation of the Executive Committee, it asked for the resignation of the whole Board,\u201d Blaska said in reference to the August 13 meeting where a number of attendees called for resignations. \u201cIf they want the Executive Committee to resign, the whole Board should resign. I did not resign, I was voted out.\u201d
\nHarlow\u2019s letter also lists five points to \u201cset the record straight.\u201d First, he states, \u201cI had zero knowledge of this tax problem before it came to light.\u201d He also contends that he wanted to go public with the tax situation from the onset.
\n\u201cThere were others on the current Board who wanted to approach businesses saying we have had hard times, but not mention the taxes,\u201d the letter reads.
\nHarlow also asked each member to reflect whether they have the best interest of the YMCA at heart and challenged them to step aside if they did not.
\nIn his last two points, Harlow directly addresses the current Director, Amy Hampton. \u201cIf the current Board wants a Director who puts in partial days and brings her dog to work, the more power to them.\u201d He also accuses Hampton of pointing a finger to the Board when addressing the question, \u201cWho is responsible?\u201d
\nHarlow also criticized Hampton for refusing to take a pay cut. She noted Thursday morning that the subject was broached by a Board Member at a meeting, but that the Board never pursued it beyond that discussion. She did confirm that she said she would not be willing to take a pay cut and that this occured before the tax deliquency came to light.
\nHarlow also noted Hampton has refused to take on responsibilities he said were carried out by previous directors. In the letter, he mentions a plan to restructure the front office, submitted by Hampton, that would have cost the YMCA more money, but does to note the specifics of that plan or dollar amounts.
\nHampton said Thursday morning that she wasn\u2019t sure where Harlow received his information concerning her working partial days, but did confirm she has brought her dog into work. \u201cThe kids loved him,\u201d she said. \u201cI thought he lightened the mood around the Y.\u201d
\nShe said the issue concerning job responsibilities focused on an internal debate as to whether the Director could effectively manage all of the programming and membership as well as personally handle the day to day operations of the organization.
\nHarlow wraps up his letter by urging the community to support the YMCA. \u201cDon\u2019t wait until the YMCA is in trouble to help,\u201d he said. \u201cThe YMCA is a cornerstone of this community. Help take care of a treasure to this community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Tyrone YMCA Board of Directors accepted the resignation of its president, John Harlow. Harlow faxed his two-page resignation letter to the YMCA Wednesday evening shortly before the 7 p.m. meeting. A copy of that letter was also released to area media organizations, including The Daily Herald. \u201cDue to the wishes of the Tyrone YMCA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}