Troubles continue at the soon-to-fail YMCA

Yet another "leader" for the Greenwich YMCA". The new guy's out after just a year on the job and has been replaced by Rebecca Fretty, "a longtime town resident and marketing executive with ties to the Junior League of Greenwich."

All this comes after the Y first imported from California a fellow named John Elkrem who committed, over the vehement objections of older members, to a $36 million reconstruction program that saw the gutting of the building, the eviction of low-income tenants on the third floor ("living on the street promotes hardiness and well being", claimed Elkrem), the loss of the oldest handball court in the country and the selling-off of Calves Island. The pool is done - nothing else, including the gymnasium that some saw as the raison d'etre for the expansion, is. Despite assurances that the new pool would draw new members who in turn would cover the cost of servicing the huge debt incurred in rebuilding and thus fund the completion of the job, Elkrem was shoved out. He left an organization that was now grossly underfunded and mired in debt, and that liability continues to grow. Ashleigh Rowe, the official spokesman for the Y, asserted yesterday that everything was wonderful and that the pool had attracted many new members. Asked how many, Rowe admitted that "she did not have overall membership figures for the YMCA". Now, the lawyer in me interprets that as an admission that she knows damn well how few new members the pool attracted and how many existing members have quit in disgust but I suppose, given the Y's track record in hiring incompetents, Rowe really is as ignorant as she says she is.

But we need not worry about the new Leader. Freety, she with "ties to the Junior League", is said to be "talented, energetic and a good spirit" by none other than Lynn Lavery, who should know - she said essentially the same thing about her friend, Dickie Fuld.

Wanna guess who's next on the bankruptcy rolls?. Here's the part I like best about this Florida entrepreneur's delusions:

Another current McKinney project is a $135 million spec home, The Manalapan Residence. This three-story 67,670 square foot home includes 14 bedrooms, 24 bathrooms, an 18 car garage, a 6,140 sq. ft. master bedroom suite, lavish Grand Rotunda room for entertaining, dual water walls, aquarium ceilings and walls, movie theatre, casino and club room with stunning aquarium wet bar, oceanfront gourmet family kitchen, catering kitchen, outdoor summer kitchen, his/her offices, 10 wet bars, two wine rooms (one for red, one for white), gymnasium with beauty salon, two swimming pools (classical lap and grotto waterfall/waterslide), shark tank, two elevators, bowling alley, tennis court with pavilion, archery range, 1/4 mile jogging/go cart track, butterfly gardens, Italian and Floridian gardens, sculpture gardens, citrus orchard, guest house, staff house, back-up generator, full home automation, and more.

One reader has suggested that Greenwich residents who want to build a dream house just wait a few months and take something off the hands of a failed builder for pennies on the dollar. If you're also thinking of a little vacation spot in Florida, you may want to apply that advice to our south, too.