Letters | Christine gets the Scout issue
CONGRATULATIONS to Christine Flowers for her article of Dec. 7 in which she correctly points out that the Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts of America constructed its headquarters and spent millions of dollars in repairs and maintenance with its own funds.
CONGRATULATIONS to Christine Flowers for her article of Dec. 7 in which she correctly points out that the Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts of America constructed its headquarters and spent millions of dollars in repairs and maintenance with its own funds.
In 1928, City Council passed an ordinance which allowed the Scouts to build a headquarters on city-owned land, rent-free and in perpetuity. I suggest that the mayor, his city solicitor and members of City Council search the dictionary for the meaning of the term "in perpetuity."
The city based its decision to evict or charge the Scouts an annual rental of $200,000 on the City's Fair Practice Ordinance, which, as Ms. Flowers correctly states, does not apply to private nonprofit organizations. (The Supreme Court has held that the Boy Scouts of America constitutes such an organization.)
Have the Boy Scouts lost their exempt status merely because they do not comply with a "politically correct" city policy?
T.A. Spina
Philadelphia