The Greater Burlington YMCA said it could no longer sustain annual losses generated by the Winooski facility, located in the O’Brien Community Center. It will close on June 30 when its lease expires.
“This is not a decision that we reached easily,” Greater Burlington YMCA president and CEO Kyle Dodson said. “Several youth and community activities introduced at the Winooski Y did not gain the intended traction. While the Winooski Y has functioned as a fitness center, the facility was never able to attract the number of members necessary to make that operation self-sustaining. Year in and year out, the Winooski Y has lost tens of
thousands of dollars.”
Winooski Y members will be allowed to use the Burlington facility.
Dodson said the YMCA opened the Winooski branch with the intention of partnering with other agencies in the O’Brien center to support local families.
“Unfortunately, the larger vision of the many organizations involved was never fully realized,” Dodson said.
The organization plans to build a new home in the former Ethan Allen Club on College Street in Burlington.
Read Dodson’s full announcement here:
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Initially the YMCA promised Winooski that the facility in Winooski would serve all Winooski youth regardless of their ability to pay. This has not happened. It appears that the Y has not lived up to its promise to Winooski.
It was an insult to Winooski when Pam Mackenzie took her place in the YMCA organization, having been installed there by her good friend Ernie Pomerleau. The two had worked very closely on promoting the F35 basing without regard for the Winooski and area homeowners and residents who will be living in conditions made “unsuitable for residential use” by the inappropriate decision. It was incredibly hypocritical that MacKenzie should oversee programs for Winooski children when in her former role as So. Burlington City Council chairperson, she REFUSED to attend a meeting about the projected adverse health effects of children from the F35s (4x as loud as the current F16s). Thanks in part to McKenzie’s political maneuverings, the City of Winooski’s is now facing the loss of millions of dollars of property value from the F35 basing, which will impact the future of thousands of homeowners and the cognitive learning development of hundreds of children living near the airport. Winooski will be better off without the presence of the Y’s leadership that holds so little regard for our community.
PS Winooski also won’t have to witness any longer the hypocrisy of the Pomerleau family who position themselves as such caring philanthropists for the area’s children’s, but show that when it comes to Winooski’s children, they consider them collateral damage in their quest to bring the F35s to Vermont. Shameful!
So the Y is closing because poor local kids weren’t admitted ? Or was it because of F35’s . Seriously ? Wow .
The closing probably has more to do with unfulfilled promises, mismanagement and over-reaching on their new Burlington project.
The pay structure at the Y is top heavy and now the people down the chain–members and staff losing their positions due to cut backs–are paying the price.