The Nepperhan Community Center in Yonkers will remain open, under a rescue plan announced by Mayor Mike Spano
Restructuring of Operations, Old Non-Profit Out, City Parks and Office of Aging to Keep Programs Running
“The Nepperhan Community Center will remain an important resource to our city.”
By Dan Murphy
On April 18, Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano announced the restructuring of the Nepperhan Community Center on 342 Warburton Avenue. “The Nepperhan Community Center is and will remain an important resource to our City,” said Mayor Spano. “My commitment is to keep it operating for the tradition it provides and for the benefit of the people in our community.”
Spurred on by the Obama Foundation’s revocation of its accreditation and the revocation of its tax-exempt status by the IRS, Mayor Spano and the Yonkers City Council asked the Yonkers Inspector General to investigate. The report, available on the City of Yonkers website, uncovered financial mismanagement, bounced employee paychecks, unpaid utility bills in excess of $200,000, and a host of missing or incomplete financial records.
“We know how important this center is for the seniors and the young people in this community,” said Mayor Spano. “We want to maintain the programs and make sure the next chapter for the Nepperhan Community Center is one we can take pride in and the next generation can be inspired by. Unfortunately, if the City does not step in, the Nepperhan Community Center is unlikely to qualify for future federal, state, or local grant funds that are the lifeblood of its ability to stay open.”
Spano noted, for example, that the federal government’s revocation of the Community Center’s tax-exempt status makes it ineligible for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds the City distributes each year for community needs.
Furthermore, according to the report, the Community Center’s governing board is establishing a new corporate entity consisting largely of the same people in an apparent effort to sidestep the tax filings it did not make in recent years.-
“This is a clear red flag, and will be seen as such by those who would normally provide funding for the Nepperhan Community Center,” said Spano.
Spano said the City’s Parks Department, Office of Aging, and other City agencies will step in to keep programs running at the Nepperhan Community Center while a true organization with a reputable non-profit board can be formed.
“This is a City-owned building that we are glad to continue to make available virtually free of charge for programs that serve the community,” Spano said, adding, “In return, the operators must be transparent, provide accountability for the public dollars, and private grants they receive, and above all comply with the tax laws and basic accounting rules.”
Yonkers Inspector General Liam McLaughlin’s recent report on NCC, identified that in January 2024 the U.S. Internal Revenue Service revoked NCC’s tax exempt status for failure to file their Tax Returns for the last three years, 2020, 2021, and 2022. That meant that NCC could not receive grant monies from the City, Obama Foundation or any other entity.
So what the leadership of the Nepperhan Community Center did was to create a new non-profit corporation, called the Nepperhan Cultural Center. But the old bills still due from the Nepperhan Community Center were never paid.
Mayor Spano told Yonkerstimes.com that “We didn’t dissolve the Board, their actions did that. We paid their electric bills and literaly kept the lights on.
“Now we are making a clean break. And let me make it clear to everyone involved, that at the end of the month, the Nepperhan Community Center and all of its assets and people are out of the building. But the City will keep the building, and that is what the Nepperhan Community Center really is, the building and the programs, will remain open.
“We will maintain it and mimic the programs the best we can, between our Parks Department and Office of Again,” said Mayor Spano, who said that a review on the conditions inside the building were “deplorable” and not properly maintained.
“We are in the process of working with Council President Collins-Bellamy and the entire council, in making a capital investment and bringing the place up to code. The Air Conditioning Unit on the roof was stoeln and the city paid to fix and replace it.”
“Once we get the place up and operational, and maintain it with our Parks and DPW, the people who live in the community that enjoyed NCC and enjoyed what they have to offer will not see a difference. If anything they will see a positive change,” said Spano.
“We wanted them (NCC) to succeed, but they got themselves in so deep that working with the council and other leaders, this was the only way to save the center and the programs. It doesn’t matter what the name is on that building. In a year or so we will do an RFP (Request for Proposal) and offer it to another non-profit.”
And Mayor Spano made it clear, “We are not selling the building. We never had plans to sell it and will never have plans to sell it. As long as I am in office, it will benefit the community.”
