Greenburgh Nature Center Endangered
Fraught contract negotiations with the town are putting this community gem at risk.
BY DEBORAH SKOLNIK
You’ve come to the right place A sign at the Greenburgh Nature Center beckons visitors.
For nearly five decades, the Greenburgh Nature Center has been an oasis in the bustle of suburban sprawl. But now, its stewards say, the future of the much-loved local destination is in question. They blame the Town of Greenburgh for this plight, decrying officials’ failure to present a reasonable contract for the Center’s continued operations.
“We've got our fiftieth anniversary coming up, and we're just dumbfounded that we're not getting the support from the Town of Greenburgh that we sort of assumed we would. They've expressed their love and affection and admiration for the Nature Center, but they're not acting on it, which is really disgusting,” board member Cathy Ludden said.
A long-standing relationship takes a tense turn
Since its founding, the Nature Center has had a contractual arrangement with Greenburgh. The town owns and maintains the land and main building, and the nonprofit Nature Center provides services including exhibits and public programs. “In exchange for all of that, the town has paid us an annual fee,” Ludden said. That payment, about $337,000, covers some 20% of the Center’s yearly expenses. The rest comes from donations and membership dues.
The problem, the Nature Center’s leadership contends, is that Greenburgh is unwilling to renew the current 25-year contract, due to expire in December 2026. “We were ready to say okay, let’s do essentially the same contract again for twenty-five years. Let’s sign it up. And they started hemming and hawing and not responding,” Ludden complained.
Possible Edgemont incorporation raises town’s concerns
Greenburgh’s hesitation stems from a fear that Edgemont may incorporate and form its own village, Ludden contended. Should the secession—which has been pondered for years—occur, it would deeply cut into Greenburgh’s finances. In 2017, Town Supervisor Paul Feiner told the New York Times that Greenburgh stood to lose some $17 million in tax revenue. Ludden said the Town more recently told the Nature Center’s board that revenue would drop by 20 percent. In that scenario, Greenburgh could have difficulty affording its current payment to the Nature Center.
Yet Ludden says the Nature Center told Greenburgh that it would work with the town should Edgemont incorporate. “We said, ‘‘Look, [if it results] in a loss of revenue to Greenburgh, we will agree that the town of Greenberg can reduce the amount that they pay [us].’ They could potentially take it to zero.….We are willing to take that risk because one, we think the Edgemont incorporation may never happen. And two, if it does, we think the new village of Edgemont may be interested in supporting the Nature Center. Other villages may be willing to support the Nature Center, too. They all are regular visitors, and many of our members are from the villages.”
Ludden added that there would be a 12-month period between a final vote for incorporation and when the measure would go into effect. “We would have time to do a lot of things to protect ourselves from that loss of income, and if it would relieve the town's concern so that we could go forward and get the contract, we were willing to take that risk. So, we've basically offered to assume the risk of the incorporation for the town of Greenburgh to take that issue off the table.”
Home base The Center’s main building.
A leaked memo lays bare the Nature Center’s frustrations
In a confidential memo anonymously shared with The Insider, the Nature Center’s exasperation is clear. The document, sent to the Greenburgh town board, town supervisor, and town attorney in March, reveals simmering tensions from the outset. “While the Town Board’s instinct to ‘wait and see’ [if Edgemont incorporates] is understandable, it is the wrong approach in this case,” the memo reads. “The Town’s refusal to renew the contract now is creating uncertainty about the Nature Center’s future, and even its continued existence.”
The letter concludes with an ominous warning. “The [Nature Center] Board knows this situation is urgent,” it says. “Board members and major donors are prominent members of the community, including Edgemont and the Villages. It will soon be necessary for them to take the urgent need for Contract renewal to the public.”
A “shocking” proposal
Despite the Nature Center’s flexibility should Edgemont incorporate, Greenburgh sent a draft contract on April 26th, 2024, that “did a couple of really shocking things,” Ludden said. “It made no mention of the three hundred and thirty-seven thousand dollars that they pay us, and so it essentially provided that for twenty-five years, we would continue to perform our services for the community without any compensation,” she explained.
In addition, the proposal shifted responsibility for the maintenance of the Nature Center’s buildings to the Center, according to Ludden. “It also required us to bear all liability. So if somebody got hurt or something, we would be liable for that, rather than the town of Greenburgh,” Ludden said. "Therefore, we were required under their draft contract to double all of our insurance coverages, which would be a significant expense with no compensation from the town for any of that…as a nonprofit, we could not indemnify a municipality for the liability and expense of being on their property.”
Counterproposal conflict
After intermediate conversations with the town, the Nature Center devised a proposal of its own. “We went back to them on May twenty-fourth with a counter draft, which pretty much takes us back to the existing contract. And we threw in a cost-of living-increase over the 25 years [the contract would span],” Ludden said. At a meeting with Greenburgh town officials on June 4th, Nature Center representatives listened as the town shared further concerns. “They said there’s three hundred and thirty-seven dollars they will have to guarantee for twenty-five years, and they don’t know what else is going to happen, such as street repairs, and there are unexpected expenses all the time,” Ludden said.
The Nature Center had a ready response. “We said that for fifty years, we have been valuable to the town for very little money—that what we are asking for amounts to one-quarter of one percent of the town’s budget of a hundred and thirty-two million dollars,” Ludden shared. “They said, ‘Okay, we hear it. We will get back to you with our proposal in one week.’ And they didn’t. So we called and they said, ‘We need a little more time. We’re meeting and talking about this, and we’ll get back to you in another week.’” Ludden said the Nature Center has yet to receive a revised contract draft. “For another two months we have had no response, and in the meantime, we're still suffering injuries,” she stated.
Naturally welcoming The Center’s grounds and building are open to the public.
Serious impact on Center’s health
Although the current contract won’t expire for two and half years, Ludden sounded an alarm. “Right now, we’re applying for grants that have a three-year horizon, and we can't say that we'll even be there in three years unless we have a contract. We have donors who have committed to some major projects on the grounds, like the construction of a welcome center and construction of a deer fence…all of those investments are on hold, because who wants to put up a welcome center on a piece of property that the town might kick us out of?”
The uncertainty has also made the Nature Center less attractive to potential employees, and leaves the outcome of future audits in limbo, Ludden added. “ If an outside auditor can't be confident that you are going to continue to exist, they certainly are going to put a flag in your audit report to warn potential donors that you may disappear,” she lamented.
Town Supervisor Paul Feiner says there’s no possibly of this dire outcome. Asked for comment, he responded via email:
“The Town Board has been negotiating in good faith with the Greenburgh Nature Center. I am optimistic we will reach an agreement to extend the contract for 25 years. Everyone on the Town Board loves the nature center and appreciates the contributions the nature center makes to our community. A concern has been how to handle the possibility of an Edgemont incorporation financially.
The Edgemont incorporation proponents have filed a petition to incorporate (a hearing is being held later this month and in September to review sufficiency of the petition). If Edgemont does incorporate the town will lose millions of dollars a year in revenue. The issue: how much can the town commit to paying the nature center each year if Edgemont incorporates.
No one on the Town Board wants the Nature Center to cease to exist. We will work with the nature center and figure out a way to extend their lease for 25 years.”
Ludden has a message as well. “We are hoping that by putting this issue out to the public, all the people who love the Greenburgh Nature Center will start pushing our town board to go ahead and give us this no-brainer of a contract. For what it costs the town, the benefit is enormously greater, and we are so popular with residents that we would think that any resident would say ‘Are you kidding me? You're not going to give one-quarter of one percent of the town budget to support the best thing about the town?’”
The homepage on the Nature Center website (www.greenburghnaturecenter.org) features a petition and urges people to email the Greenburgh town board at TownBoard@greenburghny.com
“Members of the Town Board always say they love and support the Nature Center,” the homepage says. “Now it is the time to show it.”
UPDATE AS OF 8/15:
The day after this article appeared, the Nature Center informed its members and donors that there has been progress on reaching an agreement with the Town of Greenburgh. If all goes well, the Center’s board hopes to sign a contract with the Greenburgh Town Council next month.