St. Paul’s Conservancy Financial Plan

To the Editor:

The St. Paul’s Conservancy, a nonprofit organization recognized by the IRS for over twenty years, describes in this week’s Garden City News its proposed financial plan to fund the phased restoration of the Main Building at St. Paul’s campus.

The upcoming release and review of the Resident Survey by BCI, suggests now is a good time to start discussing how best to finance St Paul’s restoration process.

Our goal is to keep the renovation costs as low as possible for residents while protecting our Village’s strong credit rating (“Aaa”) and its ability to borrow funds in the future.

The Conservancy’s plan is similar to those used by universities, hospitals, and museums. It does not require the Conservancy to pledge or mortgage any property, which is important because St. Paul’s is designated as “Parkland” and cannot be used as collateral.

We believe St. Paul’s should be managed as a separate Village-controlled organization, similar to how the Water Department or Recreation programs are operated. The Conservancy would act as a partner or agent of the Village, helping finance, restore, and manage St. Paul’s—much like the Central Park Conservancy does for New York City’s parks. The Village’s Recreation Department would continue managing programs and activities at St. Paul’s as it does now.

The Village would retain legal ownership of the property and oversee the budget for both the restoration and ongoing operations. The Conservancy would be led by a Board of resident volunteers with expertise in law, engineering, architecture, finance, and recreation as well as Village Trustees. These volunteers would provide Critical Continuity and professional guidance for managing St. Paul’s over the long term.

A critical aspect of our plan is that any debt used for restoring St. Paul’s would be the responsibility of the Conservancy, NOT the Village. This protects the Village’s credit rating and preserves its borrowing capacity for essential services like police, fire, and other Village projects.

The Conservancy would also help secure grants from federal, state, and local sources, and could lead an annual fundraising campaign to further reduce resident costs.

The Conservancy welcomes the opportunity to discuss our plan with the Board of Trustees, financial advisors, the Catell-Tauches Committee and residents. Let’s work together this summer to develop a financing plan that implements residents’ wishes, as expressed in the BCI survey.

We look forward to our collaborative discussions.

Peter Coll & Frank McDonough,
Co-Chairs, St. Paul’s Conservancy