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> YMCA should be re-opened
Southsider2k12
post May 21 2008, 11:15 AM
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http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...ArticleID=13536

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Old YMCA Should Be Reopened
In reference to the article Tuesday, "Get up off the Couch," this quote impressed me: "A variety of exercises are not only safe for older people but have enormous advantage in delaying some diseases and disabilities."

This truth has relevance to the current discussion before the City Council as to whether to spend a huge amount money for a requested new office building for the Parks Department or rather to save some money by purchasing the abandoned YMCA building at Coolspring and Jackson.

I and many others believe the latter is the way to go. It has a central location and access to public transportation. In addition to the required Parks Department office space, the wonderful community facilities could be reopened for everyone - the gymnasium, the swimming pool, an impressive array of exercise equipment, as well as restoring space for the successful day-care program for children.

I was for many years a frequent enjoyer of the swimming pool, but now I have to drive to Chesterton, with gas at $4 a gallon, to use the Duneland Health and Wellness Center, where I often see other refugees from the collapsed YMCA facility. I have often seen many aquatic exercise classes for the elderly and swimming classes for children.

There were vibrant programs for teenagers, a seldom vacant gym and many folks using the first class exercise machines. It was a great asset for the health of the whole community as well as a great place for socialization for the elderly.

How could you not help but be in favor of this wonderful project for the enjoyment and good health of adults, teens and children?

Please let your local council member know about your opinion.

The Rev. Charles E. Doyle

Michigan City
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Roger Kaputnik
post May 21 2008, 11:54 AM
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There would be some irony if Parks and Rec takes it over and it becomes a hoppin' place.


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Southsider2k12
post May 22 2008, 11:28 AM
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Its been their goal for years to get Michigan City as their territory without helping us out at all... At least in my opinion. They want the money, but mark my words, they won't return the favor.

http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...ArticleID=13748

QUOTE
La Porte YMCA To Take City's Y Territory
Announcement from the national association expected today.

Jason Miller
The News-Dispatch

LA PORTE - The La Porte Family YMCA will be awarded the territory once covered by the Michigan City Family YMCA, according to a spokesman from the YMCA of the United States.

Officials hope the move will allow the La Porte YMCA to eventually cover all of La Porte County.

"That's our goal, eventually," La Porte Y Executive Director and CEO Cindy Berchem said Wednesday. "We haven't officially heard from national yet, but I can say we're certainly trying to get that territory.

"Michigan City is an area that needs a YMCA."

National spokesman Brad McDermott said Wednesday the national committee on membership standards will meet today and agree to notify the La Porte Family YMCA that it received the territory.

Michigan City Family YMCA lost the territory last year after it lost its national charter. The YMCA shut down last August due to financial issues that caused utilities to be shut off.

The YMCA building, 1001 E. Coolspring Ave., requires hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs as well, according to records requested by the Michigan City Parks Department and provided to The News-Dispatch.

McDermott said the committee follows a process in deciding who should receive a lost territory. Both the La Porte Family YMCA and the Duneland YMCA in Chesterton were interested in the territory.

"When an area is vacated, there's a process we go through to determine which one is best positioned to serve that community," he said. "We look at their leadership and location and their history. Things like that."

Berchem said the first thing the La Porte Y will do if awarded the territory is look for a facility in which children going to day camp at La Lumiere can wait for a bus.

Currently, day campers are brought to the Y in La Porte and bussed to the northern La Porte County boarding school. Michigan City children will be able to attend day camp, but getting to La Porte to catch the bus could be a problem.

"We're looking for a location where the kids can be dropped off and wait for the bus, then be let off after camp and wait for their ride home," Berchem said. "We'd like a place for a couple hours in the morning and in the afternoon."

Berchem said her organization would like, eventually, to serve all of La Porte County, but until a final decision is made, that possibility isn't feasible.

"We're kind of in limbo," she said.

Contact Jason Miller at jmiller@thenewsdispatch.com.
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JHeath
post May 22 2008, 12:16 PM
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QUOTE
"Michigan City is an area that needs a YMCA."

Enough said.
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Southsider2k12
post May 22 2008, 12:38 PM
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QUOTE(JHeath @ May 22 2008, 01:16 PM) *

Enough said.


And if they REALLY felt that way, they would have done something to help when Michigan City actually had a YMCA.
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Roger Kaputnik
post May 22 2008, 01:50 PM
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Amen, amen.


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RexKickass
post Jun 2 2008, 08:46 AM
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If I remember correctly, the old vacant YMCA needs millions of dollars in rehab work to get it up and running again.


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JHeath
post Jun 2 2008, 08:58 AM
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It does need some rehab work, but the cost for that would still be significantly less than building a new office/pool house facility at the lakefront for the MC Park & Rec folks.
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Roger Kaputnik
post Jun 2 2008, 09:38 AM
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Certainly not 'millions' to rehab.


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Southsider2k12
post Jun 2 2008, 03:38 PM
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About a million to a million and a half depending on the extent of renovations.
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lovethiscity
post Jun 2 2008, 09:58 PM
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QUOTE(JHeath @ Jun 2 2008, 09:58 AM) *

It does need some rehab work, but the cost for that would still be significantly less than building a new office/pool house facility at the lakefront for the MC Park & Rec folks.

The Park Departments $5.6 million has no pool house. Office space, meeting room, bath house and maybe a concession stand.
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Roger Kaputnik
post Jun 3 2008, 09:02 AM
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Using the existing Y building also helps avoid the problem of removing more of the park out of public access and use which would be the result of building a new Parks and Rec edifice in Washington Park.


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JHeath
post Jun 3 2008, 09:31 AM
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QUOTE(lovethiscity @ Jun 2 2008, 10:58 PM) *

The Park Departments $5.6 million has no pool house. Office space, meeting room, bath house and maybe a concession stand.

My mistake. I meant bath house.
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Roger Kaputnik
post Jun 12 2008, 11:34 AM
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Any news on this front?


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Marram
post Jun 12 2008, 12:26 PM
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QUOTE(Roger Kaputnik @ Jun 12 2008, 12:34 PM) *

Any news on this front?


In two words, "not yet."


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Southsider2k12
post Jun 12 2008, 01:27 PM
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QUOTE(Teach @ Jun 12 2008, 01:26 PM) *

In two words, "not yet."


There are other "problems" afoot.
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Dave
post Jun 12 2008, 03:51 PM
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QUOTE(southsider2k7 @ Jun 12 2008, 02:27 PM) *

There are other "problems" afoot.



huh.gif
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Roger Kaputnik
post Jun 13 2008, 07:29 AM
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Oh?


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Southsider2k12
post Jun 27 2008, 09:54 AM
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http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...amp;TM=43130.49

QUOTE
Old Y Sits In Dark And Decays
On the south side of Coolspring Avenue, a couple of blocks west of Woodland Avenue, behind old trees and a deep, empty parking lot, sits the hulk of what was the Michigan City Family YMCA. On a July day in 2007, NIPSCO shut off the building's electricity for non-payment of past-due bills.

The lights went off abruptly, as did the heater for the pool . Office computers plunged into oblivion. The Y's small staff searched for flashlights to find their belongings and flee.

The building today - long, deep and squat, a drab testament to utilitarian architecture - is devoid of human life.

Does this derelict have ghosts? Last year, before the building was closed, night intruders broke in on several occasions, smashing glass and stealing petty cash.

What could thieves steal, though? Old rusty barbells from the upstairs weight room? They could get hernias trying to hoist the treadmills and nearly immovable Nautilus equipment from the subterranean "cardio room." They could sprain their ankles in the dark by tripping on the frayed carpet that is now, as then, patched here, there and almost everywhere with duct tape.

They might haul out a couple of old doctor's scales from the locker rooms, roll out the refrigerator from the kitchen, while stripping the cupboards of stale coffee and crackers and maybe an unopened jar of grape jelly. This wouldn't be cheerful work, not unlike chipping out the fillings from a corpse's teeth.

No, there is not much to take from this derelict. There never was.

The only things of real value were stolen a year ago: the laughter of children as they scrambled out of old YMCA buses for a day of not overly supervised fun; the roughhouse jollity of muscular young men playing half-court basketball; the grunts and splashes of old women, and at least one old man, paddling for their health in an early morning aquatic exercise class; the occasional bang and clang of weights being hefted and released; the squeaky wheels of the janitor's supply cart as he made his rounds; the moan of an antique vacuum cleaner as it tried valiantly to suck up dirt; the murmur of the part-time janitor as he practiced Spanish numerals while pushing a long dust broom up and down the basketball court.

If there is any light today in the black, cavernous interior of this derelict, it is falling from the skylights onto that basketball court. It may illuminate unseen layers of un-mopped dust, but it can bring no sparkle to un-dropped droplets of good, fresh sweat.

R.E. Roderick

Michigan City
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Roger Kaputnik
post Jun 27 2008, 10:30 AM
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so what is going on with the petitions to make the parks dept hq there?


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