YMCA purchase deadline extended

The Spokane City Council has an extra month to decide if it will buy the YMCA.

The Spokane Park Board put a $1 million down payment on the Y in 2006. The city was supposed to come up with the $4.4 million outstanding on the purchase by May 4. But Park Director Barry Russell said Monday that the Y has agreed to the city’s request to extend the deadline until May 29.

“We just want more breathing room,” Russell said.

Spokane Mayor Mary Verner has said she supports borrowing the money from the city’s investment fund. Council President Joe Shogan said he favors the use of the money, but others have raised legal questions about doing so.

The council voted last week to pay for a study to help decide what should be done with the building, which is surrounded by Riverfront Park.

If the city doesn’t come up with the money, it will forgo the $1 million down payment and face the prospect of being sued by the Y for breaking the sales agreement.

Protesters gather for Ugandan kids

Several dozen teens and young adults spent Sunday night outside Spokane City Hall as part of a national effort to call attention to the plight of children in Uganda who are kidnapped and forced to fight in a decades-old civil war.

The group was part of a national protest called Invisible Children, in which demonstrators gathered in 80 cities, and said they were captured and refuse to leave until they were “rescued” by a government official or a celebrity who made a statement of support. The Spokane group declined to leave after speaking with Council President Joe Shogan, but did leave after hearing a statement of support from a member of Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ local staff.