Scouts haggling over insurance

The Pikes Peak Council of the Boy Scouts motto has also been “be prepared.” Now Scout executives are really putting that to the test. June 17th, Camp Alexander near Lake George had to be evacuated because of the Springer Fire. That meant $260,000 of losses because scouts had to be farmed out to other facilities or get refunds.

Scout Executive, Kent Downing tells me the claim for this money was submitted three months ago. Since then, the insurance company and Scout staff have had to haggle over the expenses. Downing says, “It gets so detailed, it includes how much toilet paper is used during those two weeks.” So far, insurance has given the Scouts organization 75 thousand dollars. That leaves a balance of $85,000 that is still a question mark for the organization.

Downing says that could mean some serious cutbacks. The Pikes Peak Council of the Scouts is a non-profit. That $85,000 is a huge hole to fill. Downing says, “When you take that amount from your operating budget, you can’t help but pull back on program services. That may mean cutting staff, not leave the service center open as long as you’d like to and not being able to provide leadership training or scout advancement support.”

Downing and his staff are still in conversations with the insurance company and haven’t given up hope that the insurance provider will cough up the cash with the proper documentation from the Scouts to back up their claims.

Downing is also a realist. His organization has set up a fire relief fund just in case not enough money is appropriate to them by the insurance company. I have put a link to that fund on our front page, links we mentioned.