These days Gary Cohn feels like Mr. Scott in the old “Star Trek” series: Every time Captain Kirk demanded a complete overhaul of the warp drive in 15 minutes, the Scotsman was forced to plead, “I canna do it, Cap’n, I nee’ more time.”
Cohn, meanwhile, is racing to raise $30 million to revamp the Union of Reform Judaism’s Camp Swig, which is badly in need of repairs and has gone unused for the past four years. But, many millions of dollars short and with a URJ-mandated deadline looming at the end of the month, Cohn is forced to admit that he cannot do it. He needs more time.
“We have on the table pledges totaling about $6 million and promises or serious interest for another $8 million, but all of that money is predicated on us landing a lead gift of $5 million or more. And one of the reasons that hasn’t happened is the major focus on our community in getting the Palo Alto JCC built,” said Cohn, the executive director of San Francisco’s Congregation Emanu-El.
Cohn, who hopes to turn the former youth camp into a retreat center, is banking that the New York-based URJ will beam him another six to nine months to come up with all the money it will take to upgrade the half-century-old infrastructure at the Saratoga Camp and repair damage incurred during a 2003 fire.
According to Michael Kimmel, the URJ’s New York-based Chief Administrative Officer, however, it might be time for Plan B.
“It seems obvious at this point, though we hope they make it, we don’t see any evidence they’ll ever reach their [goal] by the deadline,” he said.
Kimmel then audibly sighed and continued, “I guess what I’m trying to say is that we’re not going to extend the time period. Originally the deadline was a year ago and so we gave them an extra year … If they were getting close it would be a different story. We feel enough time has been given.”
At this point, Kimmel feels it’s time to seriously discuss selling Camp Swig, a 185-acre property complete with a number of cabins, an infirmary, a dining hall, swimming pool, program building and Holocaust memorial chapel (which he would move elsewhere prior to the sale).
Also, in a sticky selling point, the camp comes equipped with the San Andreas Fault running directly beneath it, which renders a large portion of its land unsuitable for construction.
“The county has limited the areas where there can be new construction,” said Ruben Arquilevich, the director of Camps Swig and Newman.
“A very small percentage of the property is buildable.”
And Cohn believes that puts time on his side. He believes the URJ is underestimating the amount of time it will take to sell the property and is also overestimating the amount of additional construction it can install on Santa Rosa’s Camp Newman (which now handles 1,400 kids every summer in shifts of 500 — and, Kimmel adds, no one is being turned away for lack of space).
Rather than face the time and effort of selling Swig, Cohn feels the URJ might as well let him continue fundraising in the interim.
Kimmel, however, doesn’t see things that way. And, since 10-year-old Camp Newman is thriving and Seattle’s Camp Kalsman opens this summer, Swig does not occupy the same vital position in the URJ’s West Coast camping world that it did four years ago when children last slept in its cabins. Conceivably, the camp could be on sale by March.
“Where we are today, Swig is not critical for us any longer,” Kimmel said.
“We would still support the [reconstruction] money being raised, but it seems likely that’s not going to happen.