Residents work to save Eighth Street YMCA building

Supporters passed out fliers at a recent event, and are urging people to contact their Unified Government commissioners to do something about the downtown YMCA building, scheduled to close April 12. The YMCA building at 8th and Armstrong is about a century old.

One resident, who declined to be identified, said her goal would be for the UG to contribute $6 million toward keeping the building open, renovating and restoring it. She suggested perhaps the school district could join in the effort, as happened with the renovation of a Y in Miami County.

Last week a spokesman for the Greater Kansas City YMCA announced the downtown Kansas City, Kan., YMCA was closing, and said the organization wanted to build a new Y building for eastern Kansas City, Kan., but had not found community financial backing for it.

The flier that was distributed urged the UG to acquire the building and contents, then to turn it into a community center. The flier cited the example of Miami County, where the YMCA announced its building would close March 30. In Miami County, the school district took over the building and it will open as a community center on April 1, without any closed time, according to the resident. There, the district is hiring the YMCA director and some other YMCA employees to work at the center.

The effort has a Facebook page called, “Save the 8th Street YMCA.”

For more information about the YMCA closing, see last week’s story, http://www.wyandottedailynews.com/articles/ymca-announces-it-will-close-downtown-kck-eighth-street-facility/.