Even with an annual shortfall of $150,000, YMCA leadership is “confident we can make it [the unwanted new community center] work.” Since when is operating a deficit budget a confidence builder?
Part of the Y’s confidence is the assumption of county support. The county has made it clear there can be no increase in its costs to operate or support this money pit of a community center. The YMCA is also assuming support from the school. The same school that is planning to go to a fourday week to save overhead costs. The same school that is operating a fitness center at a loss.
The Y’s preliminary numbers indicate this unwanted community center would be operating at a loss, which is why the community roared in outrage the first time That roar temporarily stopped the madness.
Clearly Commissioner Sue Hakes did not hear her constituents proclaim, “Cook County cannot afford this multi-million dollar facility.”
She now asks, “What’s the next step?”
The next step is to put this idea away. Stop spending time, effort, and money on a project the county cannot afford.
I fear Commissioner Hakes is hoping to push this project through the system by using attrition—she’ll push and push and continue to push, thinking that the opposition will quit and quietly go away.
Cook County has 2,350 households. The YMCA’s membership numbers are based on 500 members, which is 1 in 4 households joining the Y. The Mesabi YMCA services the Quad Cities of Virginia, Eveleth, Gilbert and Mountain Iron, which has 8,218 households in 90.6 square miles. The Quad Cities Y draws its membership from almost four times the number of households as Cook County in a mere 3 percent of Cook County’s area. (Source: 2010 census, Mesabi YMCA website, Wikipedia)
I hope the remaining Cook County commissioners show fiscal responsibility and will not let this facility be built. It has been shown to be a money loser by more than one study.
Val Littfin
Grand Marais
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