- March 27, 2024
Loading
Off-site activities will continue. Future expansion is a possibility.
Citing a $50,000-per-year deficit, the Volusia Flagler Family YMCA Board of Directors voted March 22 to suspend operations at the fitness center, which is currently renting space at Florida Hospital Flagler, 60 Memorial Medical Parkway.
According to Teresa Rogers, president and CEO of Volusia Flagler Family YMCA, the fitness center facility is simply too small to support enough paying members to cover costs. There are about 900 members of the Y there, one full-time staff member, and 29 part-time.
Youth basketball, summer camp and other sports, aquatics and childcare programs and other activities, which take place in other locations around the county, will not be affected.
“We want to make sure the public knows we’re not leaving the community,” Rogers said.
The fitness center will close May 31. By then, a committee called the Flagler Solutions Team, comprising 26 community leaders, will hopefully have a plan for the YMCA to return.
“We understand the economic issues affecting our county, and specifically our Y, and would like to come back with a much stronger presence that is fully supported by the community,” Rogers said.
The closing of the YMCA follows a trend, she added. All other YMCAs that are fewer than 10,000 square feet have also been closed in the two-county area, leaving a total of seven. The good news, she said, is that the membership in Flagler County has remained constant despite the economic downturn. That indicates the current facility never met the demand and bodes well for a future facility.
Rogers said the decision to close was purely financial and had nothing to do with the hospital, which rented room for the Y at a “rock-bottom rate.”
“Florida Hospital was pleased to have the Y as part of our facility in Flagler for many years,” David Ottati, president of Florida Hospital Flagler, said. “We will miss the Y on the Florida Hospital Flagler campus, and we will continue to support the Y’s services in this community.”
Visit www.vfymca.org or call 386-738-9622.