LETTER: Boys & Girls Club Planning to Expand, Obstacle Hindering Its Efforts

The Watertown Boys and Girls Club is expanding, building a New Foundation

The Board of Directors, Executive Director Gary Beatty and staff of the Watertown Boys and Club are delighted to announce an expansion of the space we use in our building and our programming for the children and families of Watertown. 

We are building a new foundation for the growth of our Club in Watertown. New Foundations — the project name — is our more than $1.6 M project to completely renovate the ground floor of the building.  The result will be a beautiful space that will house a brand new licensed childcare program — the first of its kind at the WBGC and the only one in Watertown–to provide licensed after-school childcare for up to 85 children. This will enable us to help meet the growing need for quality after-school care for children in K-3 in Watertown.

I am writing to share an update on our project.  In the past year we hired an architect, Bloom Architects, agreed on a design, developed drawings and bid documents, bid the job out and awarded the bid. We have signed a contract with Groom Construction. Groom was the low bidder (by over $100K) and have been very responsive and easy to work with. We are excited to be working with them. Construction is due to start in August and is expected to finish around the end of the year.

We are ready to move ahead, but we can’t.  The barrier is First Path Daycare.

This is a major improvement for the WBGC and good for the youth and families of Watertown. It is also a change and change is hard. For First Path Daycare, it means they have to relocate. After a successful relationship, operating from the ground floor of the Club for over 26 years, First Path Daycare has purchased a building on Boyd Street on Watertown’s south side and will be moving their daycare center there. We appreciate the complexity of that move and for two-and-a-half years have gone out of our way to be supportive and generous. But now the only barrier to moving forward is First Path Daycare’s consistent failure to live up to their agreements.

This has been going on for over two-and-a-half years

WBGC first informally and then legally notified First Path of our intention to NOT renew their lease on December 2021, 18 months before the lease was due to expire on June 30, 2023.

In July of 2023 First Path asked for an 11 month extension on top of the 18 months notice. In our interest in seeing First Path remain successful we granted that and First Path legally committed to vacate the space by May 31 2024, and also agreed not to take any other legal action to delay further. They did not abide by that commitment.

In May of this year First Path again asked for a three-month extension to August 31. Due to First Path’s failure to meet any of the other deadlines set for moving out and our lack of confidence in their intention or ability to comply with yet another extension, the Board of Directors voted to grant a one-month extension to June 30 and prepared to evict them come July 1 if necessary. We are now almost at the end of July, one month past the deadline to vacate, and they are still not out, not close to moving out, and appear to be preparing to delay further.

First Path have threatened to declare bankruptcy and launch a PR campaign making the WBGC out to be the “bad guy” in order to further delay moving out. While we are grateful for the past relationship we have had with First Path, we are very disappointed in their response to our patience and support. Further delay could add significant costs to our project. 

We value the service First Path Daycare provides to families and children in and around Watertown and we hope we can settle this with them in a friendly way. We are prepared to force an eviction if that is not possible.

Respectfully,

Alan Medville
New Foundations Chair and Chairperson of the Board
Watertown Boys and Girls Club