Uncovered the REAL story about the sale of Alton

[Gary Scharoff]

Was searching the archives of The Union Leader and came across this article:

<CENTER><BIG><STRONG>Speedway Owner Buys Former Camp in Alton for $2.45M <IMG SRC="http://www.campalton.com/smilies/frown.gif" BORDER=0 ALT=":("> </CENTER></BIG></STRONG>

BYLINE: ROGER AMSDEN Union Leader Correspondent
DATE: January 25, 1995
PUBLICATION: Union Leader, The (Manchester, NH)
EDITION: State
PAGE: A4

ALTON - A 60-acre former summer camp with 4,000 feet of frontage on Lake Winnipesaukee was purchased for $2.45 million by the owner of New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon.

Bob Bahre said that he intends to build homes on the property for himself and his son, Gary, who is president of the Speedway. The property, until late last year, had been eyed as a possible state park site.

Bahre said that he is working to develop subdivision plans which he will bring before the Alton Planning Board next month. He said he is hopeful that he will be able to finish the homes for himself and his son this summer.

He said that he became interested in the property last summer and put up $150,000 for an option which would be exercised if a plan to buy the area and make it part of the state park system did not come to fruition.

''I've been looking for a place to build for some time,'' said Bahre, who lives in Paris, Maine, in the former home of Vice President Hannibal Hamlin.

Bahre said the homes he plans will only be 20 miles from the speedway and will be his primary residence during the racing season at NHIS.

He said that the 60 acres will be subdivided into 14 or 15 lots, each with lake frontage, and that he intends to retain the tennis courts and a polo field as amenities for those who will live within the development.

Bahre said that the $150,000 option fee went to pay the expenses of the Trust for Public Lands, which had an option to buy the property for $2.5 million. The option expired in November.

The TPL had tried to devise a plan for public use of the property and at one time the town of Alton was considering becoming a partner in the purchase. That plan called for the town to pay $500,000 for some five acres of land and a 400-foot sandy beach contingent upon state acquisition of the rest of the property.

A committee charged with investigating the purchase unanimously recommended against proceeding with the purchase last November, citing the expense to acquiring and manage the property.

An anonymous donor had offered to put up as much as $1 million toward the purchase last summer, but with the stipulation that the camp become part of the state park system.

<SMALL><EM>Copyright 1995, 2002 Union Leader Corp.
The information on this site is copyrighted and cannot be reused
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The article says it all!!!



gms@pipeline.com

[Sid]

The article provides the factual data related to the transaction. I'm interested in knowing why Peter (and family) decided to terminate the camp that mean so much to all of us. I've heard the many theories but never anything purported to be the real truth.
Yo Reb Brecker, you need to fess up here. You must know the details.


mclevy2@comcast.net

[Uncle Moish]

that's never in the past stopped my mouth [nor now my "pen"].

I had the impression that Camp Alton, Inc. was selling the land to a group which would retain the premises's ethereal status in one form or another. Upon getting control, however, they then sold it at the augmented price which camp could have originally fetched, made a bit of a windfall, and deprived Camp's stockholders from realizing the full value of their asset.

Even if this not be the case, can we really say that camp meant so much to so many of us that it should be maintained at a loss to but one segmen [the stockholders]? I frankly think that the stockholders, who loved those grounds as much as if not more than most of us would have been happy to share a pro rata "hit". I am guessing that they felt that had push come to shove, many of us would have found [legitimate] reasons to divert our priorities [and finances] elsewhere and they would have been left holding the proverbial bag.

Again, I know nothing and am far, far from an insider. I formed my conclusions basically from rumors with, I would hope, a fair amount of logic thrown in.

We live today, believe it or not, at a time of miracles, miracles often obscured. Today, T'sha B'av, we not only mourn the Temple's destruction but pray for and expect its rebuilding. Do we feel differently as to a certain parcel of land, once [and still?] designated "Clay Point"?

Keep in touch; keep contributing.
Uncle Moish



mark@lgpltd.com

[DDD]

I know much less than the Reb, but my take always was - IF one could grant, for the sake of discussion, that CA could not have continued as a going concern after its final summer, THEN the open question was, what is the optimum disposition of the asset (which was also a significant liability, given NH tax structures, if I understand correctly)?

My preference would have been for public control- the state lands idea. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, this did not come to pass.

DDD


[url=http://slate.com]http://slate.com[/url]

[The Answer Man]

Sid,

Those who know won't tell and those who tell don't know!

[Tracy Klestadt]

I know even less about the demise of Camp Alton, hearing about it for the first time around 5 or more years after the fact. But to me something was always wrong in the approach to its operation. Even in the 1970s I do not recall any advertising that Camp Alton existed. I believe (perhaps mistakenly) that Camp Alton relied strictly on word-of-mouth to attract new campers. When I went to the 50th anniversary of Camp Alton celebration in 1987, there were probably 1/2 the number of campers than in the mid-1970s when I attended.

Putting demographic trends aside, and relying solely on my own observations, my conclusion is that no serious effort was made to have Camp Alton survive. The market for campers in New York and Long Island alone appears to be quite strong - everyone I know who has camp-age kids (including my cousins Gary, Alan and Peter Klestadt) send their kids to camp, so there would have been an available source of campers if Camp Alton were properly marketed. I had also heard that Peter no longer wanted to run camp, and that even though there were others who would have volunteered their time, the decision to sell Camp Alton was made.

I may be completely wrong about my facts and assumptions. But I do know that the loss of Camp Alton is a tragedy. And as I get older the magnitude of that loss only becomes more and more apparent.


tklestadt@klestadt.com

[Uncle Moish]

that I know something about some of the questions Tracey K. [my baby - 1976] raises.

For whatever reasons [fewer camps, Chief's personality, his previous camp experiences, his connections to sources of youngsters at/thru Boston Latin, etc.], despite a slump during the war years, camp was always brimming with applicants [a friend, one December sought to be on the waiting list for the upcoming summer and was gently advised "no way"]. Chief made a point of NOT advertising, and the lack of that endeavor echoed volumes as to how privileged it would be to attend THE ideal summer place.

However, in 1970, with many additional camps as well as alternative summer endeavors for an increasingly "avant guard" [spelling, again?] population, the season began full, but with none closed out and left on the waiting list.

I am not sure of the exact season, but shortly thereafter one could see Camp Alton advertisd in the New York Sunday Times "summer camp" section [and certainly in other places].

In addition, Peter, and others, often travelled to talk about camp at various gatherings and to prospective camp parents. It succeeded, but the pizzazz [sp?] of being full without the need for promotion was gone.

A stop-gap measure was the allowance of "4 week" campers. I often wondered [aloud, as usual] whether this impacted negatively on the eight week campers who, just as the group [a/k/a "bunk"]was jelling into a cohesive unit, suddenly found some "comrades" absent and/or newcomers arriving.

Last night I was back at camp. Surely I'm there every night, as I hear that one has thousands of dreams nightly but can recall on wakening but a few. It was the same/similar dream I recall perhaps half my waking mornings. I'm back at camp, last night in a bunk around B or C - often it's the A-Field, Beach, Mess-Dining Hall, etc. - but something "insecure" is in the atmosphere. It always seems as if something is about to collapse and/or end. This is wrong [and the entire process somewhat sick, to say the least]. I should have digested, long ago the adage with which so many counselors shows and all Final Almanacs concluded: "But Camp is never over in our hearts."

Peace,
Uncle Markie



mark@lgpltd.com

[Duvke]

I still remember the ~1978 Gray team comic verse about the first year of 4 week campers. I think the program was originally intended for first year boys in Lower Camp.

I was a bunk counselor to 14-year olds about ten years later (1988). We had a kid who left after four weeks every year to spend a week or two with his family on Martha's Vineyard. He was a popular kid, i.e., not a loser but for the fact that he wanted to leave camp to hang with his parents every summer.

As counselors, we always figured that we and our parents always shared the idea that a full summer apart was mutually beneficial. Now that I am a parent, this idea has been confirmed! Of course, I was all of 8 yrs. older than the campers, so I really doubt there was a generation gap, but I blame the parents.

And Alan Klestadt was my counselor in K-2, circa 1976. If his kids are now at camp, I hope their counselors don't subject them to that bwokkin' Billy Joel every day, like he did to us.



dw0613@cox.net