Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 22, 1994 TAG: 9410240051
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Several YWCA members who contacted the newspaper this week said reports of the Salem center's possible closing have been floating since Oct. 13. Petitions were posted in locker rooms, they said. Board members' addresses were passed through a membership "grapevine" to spur a letter-writing campaign.
Gwyn Finton, a part-time instructor of an arthritis aquatics class and a YWCA member, said board members told her that closing the center was a possibility.
"None of us really knows how this all transpired," Finton said. "When the rumor finally got to me, I asked [a board member] to squelch it. Her words were that it was a very likely possibility."
Millicent Smith, a YWCA member, said a board officer told her that the board would meet Tuesday, in part to discuss the center's future.
And "she told me they very likely will close it," Smith said.
Ginny Allison, YWCA board president, said emphatically this week that no decision has been made on the Salem center.
The YWCA leases the activities building at Roanoke College's Elizabeth Campus, across from the Salem Civic Center. The building, which the organization has leased since 1985, has an indoor swimming pool, a full-sized gym and three multipurpose rooms.
The YWCA offers water aerobics and arthritis aquatics classes, an after-school program for children, a summer day camp and other programs similar to those offered at the YWCA's downtown Roanoke center.
Margaret Hudson, controller for the college's business-affairs office, said Friday that the college had not been notified of any plans by the YWCA to close the Salem center or change its lease agreement. The lease expires in October 1995.
The YWCA did come to the college more than 18 months ago to ask that its rental rates be lowered, Hudson said. The college complied.
"I negotiated a lower lease," Wendy O'Neil, the YWCA's executive director, said Friday. "We could not afford the rent. Our sisters who went before us obligated us to more than, in reality, we were able to pay."
O'Neil would not say how much the YWCA pays in rent.
But she said she was angry about the rumors.
"It angers me that anyone would say that we have made any decision when they are not even respectful enough to allow the full board to discuss anything," O'Neil said. "That is an irresponsible action that creates an awful lot of hardship for our program participants.
"And I am very annoyed that some people are taking a little bit of information and running with it before the board has had a chance to discuss it. It's so disrespectful of the board process of sitting down and discussing issues."
O'Neil, who leaves her job at the YWCA on Oct. 31 to work for the Girl Scouts in Memphis, Tenn., said the board is starting the process of reviewing the organization's full financial picture. She said she would not attempt to second-guess what the board might do.
"All we're doing is looking at information now," she said. "We're not doing anything we don't do on an annual basis. I'm sorry some folks worry if we look at our options."
Some members say they are concerned about the future of programs that have been exclusive to the Salem center.
Member Liz Barber said she was concerned that if the Salem center closed, its swim programs would be transferred downtown, where the pool is underground.
"It would be a real challenge for senior citizens and disabled children and adults who take swim classes to get in there," Barber said. "It's a wonderful pool; the problem is how you get folks with disabilities two to three floors down."
She said the YWCA's handling of the whole issue seems "atypical for them."
"It's so unlike everything that's been handled in the past," Barber said. "Members feel shut out and surprised by it. I guess the fact that it's been kept a secret from everyone, people are kind of shocked."
by CNB