Center member resigns, cites MBNA directives

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CAMDEN – Claiming that MBNA New England’s donations to the Camden Teen Center have come with strings attached, a teen center board member has resigned in protest.

But MBNA officials and others involved in the center say the perception that the company is making demands is the result of a misunderstanding.

MBNA announced in the spring that it would construct a building for the center, which has been operating out of a small building adjacent to the Camden Lions Club off Knowlton Street.

After getting permits, the work began in late September on the one-story, 5,200-square-foot building. The new center, which is to be completed by March 1, will include a multipurpose room that can seat 100.

Outside, a volleyball court, Hacky Sack court, stage and garden are planned. A large deck will overlook the skate park, which MBNA built for area teens on an adjacent lot in June.

MBNA officials said the building will cost $700,000.

In addition to the building – which will be leased to the center for $1 a year for 10 years – MBNA pledged $150,000 each year to cover staffing costs. MBNA will also take care of utility bills and the cost of maintenance.

At public meetings and in letters to the editor in a local weekly newspaper, the latest manifestation of the company’s legendary benevolence was praised.

But Jerry Stone, a longtime Camden middle school teacher and ordained minister who has served on the center’s board for several years, resigned from the board in protest Oct. 29.

Stone had strong words for what he said was MBNA’s attaching of strings to the building of the new center. “I don’t appreciate any multinational corporation coming in and taking over a local governing board,” he said Friday.

Stone said MBNA listed conditions for the building, such as that it be painted a neutral color, that inside walls be kept bare, and that teens be required to clean the center. He said he did not object to these conditions, saying they were reasonable for a landlord to require.

Stone did object strongly, though, to what he said was MBNA’s requirement that a company employee be added to the board.

“MBNA demanded that we will have this person,” Stone said. “That’s taking away local independence.”

And Stone charged that the company stipulated that the center no longer offer drug- and sexuality-education sessions.

MBNA spokesman David Spartin said Stone has misunderstood the company’s communications.

A teen center representative asked if MBNA could recommend that one of its employees serve on the board, Spartin said. MBNA’s Jamie Ritter agreed to serve. The board had dwindled to nine members from a possible 15.

But after Stone’s complaints, Ritter resigned. Bob Oxton, chairman of the center’s board, is an MBNA employee, but Spartin said that Oxton has volunteered for the center for a number of years.

“Jamie resigned from the board last week,” Spartin said Saturday, “to avoid any appearance whatsoever that we’re taking away local control. MBNA has no desire to dictate anything to the teen center board. I just think it’s a misunderstanding.”

Spartin also emphatically denied Stone’s contention that MBNA made demands about sexuality and drug education. The center is free to offer any programming that it wishes, he said.

He said the misunderstanding may have come from MBNA’s communicating to the center’s board that any requests for company education grants to pay for special programs must be approved by a committee. The teen center board is free to apply for those grants, he said.

MBNA has given hundreds of grants to local schools and education-related programs in recent years, using the review committee – made up of three MBNA employees and 10 community representatives.

Spartin and MBNA President Charlie Cawley flew to Maine from Delaware on Tuesday to meet with the teen center board to iron out any misunderstandings, Spartin said. A letter was delivered, reiterating the terms of the lease.

On Friday, Stone, who was not present at Tuesday’s meeting, said, “There was no misunderstanding. I don’t misunderstand things. I’m acting out of my principles.”

Stone stressed that he was not one to bash MBNA, which he said has made a positive impact on the community through its benevolence, but that he believes the company overstepped boundaries on the teen center.

Spartin said Stone also misunderstood the other conditions of the lease. He said the company agreed to deliver the building complete, with interior walls painted a neutral color so the center can determine its color scheme.

Center Director Carole Mathews said Friday that the center has permission to paint murals on the walls, if it wants.

And Spartin said MBNA will allow items to be hung on the walls, but asked that the center ask for assistance from the company so that any wall hangings be secured safely.

In what she said was an unrelated development, Mathews announced her resignation as director of the center, effective Dec. 22. She said it was her intent to stay a year, and that she had already exceeded that term.

“I’m not an administrator,” she said Friday. “I don’t like sitting behind a desk,” which is what the center will need when it opens in the new building.

Mathews said she prefers to be involved in the creative part of programming.