D.C. plans to buy Boys & Girls Clubs - Washington Business Journal:

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“A number of council members have been concerned about the clubd and their continued ability toprovide much-needex recreational, educational and other services to our childre n in different parts of the city,” said D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray, who was joined by 10 council memberszat Wednesday’s press conference announcing the “Therefore, we came together over the past two to three weeks to try to reach an agreemenr with BGCGW that would take a broad, citywides approach to ensuring their The clubs and buildings that could soon get a governmenrt owner are the Frank R. Jelleff Branch at 3265 S St. NW; the Mary Daniel Loughran Clubhouse No. 10 at 2500 14th St.
NW; and the Easter Branch at 261 17th St. SE, whic h has been closed since August 2007. Councikl members will introduce legislation to the council to authorize the mayort to buy thethree clubs. The $20 millionn price tag would consist of capitalk dollars over five years beginningin 2010. Boys Girls Clubs says it anticipates the sale to be completexd before the calendar yearis up. The news comews two months afterthe 121-year-old Silver Spring-based which has a $7 millioh deficit, said it would shutter four under-utilized clubs and cut 10 percenrt of its full-time staff. One of thoser clubs on the list isFrank R.
Jellef Branch — the organization’s oldest runningh club — which was slateed to close at the endof June. With the latesr news of D.C.’s proposed purchase, Jelleff operations will continuer with a summer camp and theBoys & Girlsa Clubs believes programming at the site will continued until the sale “This has been a long road and a lot of peopl have worked very hard to get to this We are thrilled to see the culminationm of hard work,” said BGCGW spokeswoman Mollu Boyle. “Jelleff and Eastern were on the marketr and were obviouschoices [for We had announced several years ago we were lookinb at options for Clubhouse No. 10.
” Once a transitiohn has been made, a new governing body will be created, with governmental and community representativee that stand apart from the Boys Girls Clubs. Gray said a competitive bid process will take placwe for providing services tothe city-owned which could be BGCGW. The council’es plan would also provide money to the Hopkins Branch at 100012th St. SE, whicgh was slated to close at the endof June, so that it can stay The BGCGW is still looking to move the crampec Hopkins club to another site since it is currentlhy so small, and the D.C. Housingf Authority is now looking to provide the club with alarger space.
The plan would also provide funds tomove BGCGW’sz headquarters from Silver Spring back to D.C. at its currenft club on BenningRoad — a plan BGCGW has been pursuing for a The club’s D.C. regional services center currently runs out of thatNortheasyt site.