Yesterday, the Tyrone Area YMCA Board of Directors issued the following press release to announce the termination of operations of the YMCA.
“On Wednesday, November 17, 2004, the Board of Directors of the Tyrone Area YMCA voted to terminate all operations of the YMCA.
“We came to this decision with great sadness and reluctance. The Tyrone Area YMCA has been serving the community since 1891; unfortunately, our current financial and facility situation make it impossible for us to continue.
“We have gone from one crisis to the next, but it was our hope that we could solve our problems; however, the findings from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry coupled with the loss of our gym and weight room were too much to overcome.
“The YMCA Board of Directors is working with the Hollidaysburg YMCA as well as other groups in hopes of continuing with as many of our programs as possible. We will keep the parents as well as the media informed as developments progress.”
At last evening’s Tyrone Area School Board meeting, board members voted to lease free-of-charge district classrooms to the Hollidaysburg YMCA for operation of the former Tyrone YMCA Preschool and before/after school programs, effective January 1, 2005. The agreement will last for the remainder of the 2004-05 school year.
The preschool and before/after school programs have been meeting at the old Penelec building along old Route 220, which was originally leased by the Tyrone YMCA to provide more space for existing programs. The preschool and before/after school programs will continue at the old Penelec building until December 30.
Also, school board members voted to lease free-of-charge the high school swimming pool to the Hollidaysburg YMCA so the former Tyrone YMCA swim program may continue.
Vice President of the Tyrone Area YMCA Board of Directors, Peter Dutrow, told The Daily Herald this morning that, “We are preparing to sell the building. We owe money. Then, when we sell the building, we’ll use it to pay off debts.”
Dutrow also explained that board members are trying to relocate as many programs as possible to other areas in the community. However, the YMCA gymnastics program will no longer continue.
“This has been extremely difficult. We can’t survive. We just don’t have the finances,” said Dutrow. “It’s unfortunate. No one’s to blame. It happened over many years.”
Tyrone community members have visited the building of the Tyrone YMCA, located on Logan Avenue, for more than 90 years.
Whether it was to view a Tyrone Community Players production in the historic theater, to watch kids play basketball in the gymnasium or to pick up children from after-school programs, area residents utilized the building in many ways.
However, the Tyrone YMCA building site has been plagued with many problems over the recent years.
First, the Bureau of Labor and Industry deemed, after a safety inspection in March, that the pervasive deterioration of the YMCA building made it unsafe for public functions.
After the inspection, the Bureau of Labor and Industry was unable to grandfather the facility from current codes and regulations. A comprehensive evaluation was conducted by the YMCA Board to determine the cost of bringing the building up to code. It was estimated this cost would approach one million dollars.
At that time, it was determined necessary to close sections of the YMCA’s Logan Avenue building, including all the floors above the lobby level. This included the historic theater, and the Tyrone Community Players were forced to find another stage.
Then, Tyrone area was forced to deal with major flooding, which occurred on September 17-18. It was during this time that the Logan Avenue facility of the YMCA received extensive flood damage to the gymnasium level of the building, and the facility was closed to the public.
On October 25, the YMCA Board of Directors announced the closing of the building on Logan Avenue by stating that it would “not reopen as the result of damages sustained during the recent flood.”
The Board explained the flood caused extensive damage to the furnaces, basketball court and weight rooms. The facility was insured, but the cost of replacing the gym floor and the weight room and repairing the furnaces exceeded the amount realized from the insurance carriers.
The Y expected to receive about $25,000 in insurance while the estimates for the gym floor, clean up, equipment and furnaces ranged from $70,000 to $80,000.
