Agreement is close, but local scouting group has questions
The town is working to finalize terms on an agreement with scouting organizations on a $2.5 million purchase of the privately owned 34-acre Camp Nehoiden property located adjacent to the Town Forest.
The Select Board had scheduled a special meeting for March 4 to discuss the draft of a purchase and sale agreement which Town Manager Katie King said had been negotiated with a regional scouting group that is the owner of record of the property.
An 11th-hour communication from a local scouting group that had not participated in the negotiations led to a change in schedule.
“I was contacted by the Needham Scouters Club, who expressed their position that any conveyance of this land requires the Club’s permission,” King informed the Observer via email.
“The Select Board meeting was deferred so the Town can evaluate this new information.”
The town had been negotiating with the Boy Scouts Spirit of Adventure Council, the Woburn-based regional organization that was formed after the Boy Scouts of America emerged from bankruptcy in 2023.
John Judge, CEO of the Boy Scouts Spirit of Adventure Council, confirmed his organization’s interest in negotiating an agreement that involves the Needham Scouters.
“We are working with the Needham Scouters Club in getting to a mutually satisfactory agreement because we want to continue to have this beautiful land for generations,” Judge told the Observer.
“Coming up with something that’s mutually satisfactory with them is going to be really important in the next few weeks.”
Judge said any agreement would address assuring that the scouts had access to the property “in perpetuity.”
“The town was very much agreeable to that,” he said.
The land to be conveyed is described in a draft purchase and sale agreement as consisting of three parcels in the area of the Town Forest near Stratford Road and White Pine Road and bounded partly by the railroad right of way. The contiguous parcels were acquired over the years by scouting organizations that predated the Spirit of Adventure Council.
Known as Camp Nehoiden, the site has been used for decades by local and regional Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and other Scouting America groups to camp overnight, learn outdoor and leadership skills, and participate in organized events such as the annual Needham Camporee. While it is not public land, the site is integrated into the town trail system.
The Select Board has conducted numerous discussions of the purchase in executive sessions, which is allowed under the state’s Open Meeting Law. There have also been non-public meetings among other town entities, such as the Finance Committee, Conservation Commission, Park & Recreation and the Community Preservation Committee, all of which have an interest in the property.
If the sale goes through, the parcel will be under the jurisdiction of Park & Recreation and would be restricted for conservation and recreational purposes. Nearly all of the $2.5 million would be provided from the CPC’s Open Space reserve funds.
In addition to requiring approval from the Select Board, the sale would need to be funded by the CPC and then approved by a two-thirds majority at Town Meeting.
Needham Scouters role
The organization that was not consulted by the town was the Needham Scouters. Andrea Longo Carter, the mother of an Eagle Scout and the group’s secretary. She said she first became aware of the deal when she saw the notice for the Select Board’s March 4 special meeting.
“We did have a conversation last night (March 3) with representatives of the (Boy Scouts Spirit of Adventure Council) where we expressed our displeasure with the fact we have not been involved in the process.”
Longo Carter noted that the combined 34-acre parcel was created by three different acquisitions that date back to the 1940s and they involve affidavits and conditions that the Scouters would like time to review.
The 14-acre Parcel C, for example, was conveyed to the scouts by the town and carries a stipulation that it must be offered back to the town for the original 1948 purchase price: $575.94, or $41.09 per acre.
The scouts in 1957 purchased the 20-acre Parcel B from Patrick O’Connor, described as “a widower,” for $23,500, which Longo Carter believes came with conditions.
“Our group needs to look at what’s been included in those agreements and to really study the purchase and sale and think about what is the appropriate next step,” Longo Carter said.
She said the group has yet to set a time to meet. “It’s just been a flurry of emails because we only just found out,” she said.
This could require time and lengthen a process that has some firm deadlines.
The first step to complete is the Select Board approving the purchase and sale agreement. The next would be to present a request for funding in this year’s Community Preservation Act requests.
The CPC’s public hearing on this year’s funding articles is scheduled for March 11, with the committee scheduled to vote the following week on the projects it will recommend for funding at Annual Town Meeting in May.
The Select Board’s next regularly scheduled meeting is March 10, the day before the CPC public hearing.
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