LITTLE ROCK — After 35 years in North Little Rock, the Johnny and Sharon Heflin YMCA Family Branch will close March 31, the organization’s board announced Wednesday, citing competition and a poor economy.
The about 30,000-square foot building at 6101 John F. Kennedy Blvd. will be sold and those proceeds used to upgrade the two other YMCAs in the area, said Tedd Maxfield, chief executive officer of YMCA of Metropolitan Little Rock.
The organization’s other facilities are the G.W. Carver YMCA Family Branch, 1116 W. Daisy Gatson Bates Drive, and the Little Rock Westside Family Center, 4701 Sam Peck Road.
Maxfield cited in a news release and a subsequent interview the economy as well as the “different world” that offers so many options for people’s time among reasons for the Heflin YMCA to close and the need to provide more resources toward upgrading the YMCA’s remaining facilities.
“Not only do people have many more alternatives to the types of programs the Y has traditionally offered, but the economic environment poses challenges to not only the YMCA, but to everyone doing business today,” Maxfield said in the news release.
“For the Little Rock Y to remain a vital, important part of young people’s lives, we must find ways to improve and upgrade our facilities,” he continued. “And, the Y must adapt to the circumstances that it faces today.”
In an interview, Maxfield added that it’s not just alternatives offered elsewhere but the YMCA’s aging facilities that pose challenges.
“We haven’t done as good of a job as we should have in just preventative maintenance and other things over time,” Maxfield said.
The North Little Rock facility opened in 1976 as Northside YMCA. The YMCA was renamed in August 1998 in recognition of Johnny Heflin’s work as a past chairman of the Metropolitan YMCA board of directors and as a member of the Y’s Foundation Board.
“It’s a very valuable part of the community, and we want to make sure we are around to continue to be a part of the community long into the future,” Jay Heflin, a member of the Metropolitan YMCA board and a son of the Heflins, said of the area’s continued presence of YMCAs.
The Heflin YMCA has 30 employees, most of those part-time, Maxfield said. Several should be able to move over to open positions at the other two YMCAs, he said.
“We have some part-time positions we are continually hiring for at other locations,” he said.
Notices to YMCA members of the Heflin center’s closure were being mailed Wednesday, Maxfield said. He declined to say how many members the branch had.
An incident in September that involved a part-time worker carting 17 Indian Hills Elementary schoolchildren in an open bed of a pickup to the Y didn’t play any role in the board’s decision to close the facility, Maxfield said.
The 18-year-old part-time employee, who wasn’t identified, was immediately fired, and the school adopted a new policy to ensure children are put in proper vehicles when transported to after-school care.
“That was a terrible mistake made on the part of one of our employees,” Maxfield said. “We addressed that very quickly, both on the part of our staff and in conjunction with the school district to make sure that never happened again.
“Most parents were fairly comfortable with the way we handled that,” he added.
The YMCA’s closing caught some city officials off guard Wednesday.
Mayor Patrick Hays said he had heard “a rumor” maybe two weeks ago but “hadn’t had any follow-up.”
“One of the things that was a little bit in the rumor was they were having some financial challenges in the last several years,” Hays said. “I was supposed to have a formal visit about it, but I haven’t had that.”
Alderman Charlie Hight of the city’s Ward 4, where the Heflin YMCA is, said the news “caught me by surprise” when told Wednesday.
“I hate to lose them,” Hight said. “It’s been somewhat economically distressed for years. But I didn’t know. ... I do know a lot of people have used it.”
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 03/03/2011