Ymca Shutting Down Cda Office Post Falls Schools Must Find Another Source To Run Day Care

Low year-round participation in the Kootenai County’s YMCA programs has closed the Coeur d’Alene office.

At least temporarily.

That also means Post Falls School District will have to find someone else to operate its proposed before- and after-school day care program.

The Kootenai County YMCA backed out of an agreement to run the program last week after director Judy Alling learned she would be laid off and her programs discontinued.

The YMCA of the Inland Empire “had to subsidize the Kootenai County branch pretty substantially over the last few years,” said Post Falls assistant superintendent Jerry Keane, who also sits on the YMCA’s board of directors.

“It’s not all that unusual to have to subsidize programs that were in the developing stage,” said Rich Wallis, the Y’s regional director. But, “it’s been real sluggish in getting there.”

Wallis said that the Kootenai County branch will be closed through the end of the year, at least.

“It might look different when we reopen,” he said. The closure should not affect too many families, because participation in fall programs was “minimal,” he said.

Summer is the YMCA’s strongest season in Kootenai County. That’s when the organization offers sports camps, day camps and swimming lessons in private pools.

Those programs will wrap up Friday.

Ever since the YMCA lost its swimming pool on River Avenue, the participation in its programs has declined, Wallis said.

The swimming pool was closed because of structural problems with the building. A windstorm damaged the building in 1990. The enclosure was torn down, and the pool opened for two summers for outdoor swimming lessons.

But the YMCA board decided to sell the facility in 1993 because maintaining it year-round was financially impractical.

The Kootenai County YMCA was the only organization to respond to the school district’s request for proposals for the daycare facility.

Post Falls parents had requested a school day-care program to give working parents a safe and convenient place to leave their children. The pilot program was to start this fall at Prairie View Elementary.

, DataTimes