As the Tyrone Area YMCA begins the task of climbing from beneath almost $70,000 in back tax liabilities, Executive Director Amy Hampton said it is important to keep the public informed of the situation. Tuesday, August 13, she facilitated a public meeting at the YMCA on Logan Avenue in Tyrone to answer questions and gather input from the community. While many in the audience expressed frustration that current Board of Directors were not a part of the formal discussion, Hampton noted she purposely decided not to formally invite current Board members to avoid, what she termed, a \u201cfree-for-all.\u201d A number of Board members were in the audience and some contributed to the discussion. There was no single spokesperson representing the views and actions of the Board, though.
\n\u201cI can see why they wanted them there,\u201d Hampton said. \u201cAs the person who will be responsible for implementing a plan to take care of this, I thought it was my duty to address the public. I wanted the opportunity to get my message across, to hear concerns from the public and to lay our cards on the table.\u201d
\nHampton summed up the major aspects and status of the non-profit\u2019s financial crisis and answered questions for over an hour this past Tuesday. One of the largest concerns was accountability.
\n\u201cThere was an overall breakdown and like many people, I have a good idea of what happened,\u201d she said. \u201cBut, I wasn\u2019t there.\u201d Hampton also noted that the Board of Directors during that period of time experienced a lot of turnover and only Board President John Harlow has been active throughout the two-and-a-half year span of unpaid taxes.
\nThe apparent breakdown is most evident in the fact that Board President John Harlow has said he never has reviewed the YMCA\u2019s accountant\u2019s end of the year report.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s not an audit,\u201d Hampton said. \u201c(CPA) John Ramsey files a 990 Form and compiles a review for the Board.\u201d Apparently that report never reached the Board, although it did reach the YMCA.
\nAccording to page two of the eight-page report for the year 2000, dated January 15, 2002, under the category of Liabilities and Net Assets Liabilities, the YMCA had $27,680 in outstanding accrued payroll taxes. To date, those liabilities are close to $70,000.
\nThe YMCA lost $7,650 in 1998, $28,125 in 1999 and $49,258 in 2000. Tentative numbers for 2001 project an overall loss of $24,405. Hampton stressed that although the taxes were unpaid, there is no indication that any money is actually missing. \u201cThe YMCA simply overspent,\u201d she said.
\nPresident John Harlow said that the Board was looking into legally pursuing the matter, either civilly or criminally. \u201cWe\u2019ve been in contact with the District Attorney\u2019s office to see what can be done.\u201d
\nHampton said that a full-time bookkeeper has been hired and the YMCA will be adopting acceptable general accounting practices to keep the situation from happening in the future.
\nHampton said that the YMCA is still awaiting word from the IRS and the commonwealth concerning the interest and penalties and she is optimistic the penalties could be forgiven.
\n\u201cRight now, it\u2019s a wait and see situation,\u201d she said. The Board of Directors meets tonight at 6 p.m. at the YMCA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the Tyrone Area YMCA begins the task of climbing from beneath almost $70,000 in back tax liabilities, Executive Director Amy Hampton said it is important to keep the public informed of the situation. Tuesday, August 13, she facilitated a public meeting at the YMCA on Logan Avenue in Tyrone to answer questions and gather […]<\/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-48334","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\/48334","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=48334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}