CHEYENNE — Michael Vanwey has been coming to the YMCA of Cheyenne ever since he can remember.
“I have a membership through my grandma,” he said. “She used to work here. So, I’ve been coming here since I was like little.”
Monday, Vanwey was at the Y partly for nostalgia. A friend had tagged him on social media announcing that the Y will be closing on Sept. 26 after nearly 70 years. The hours will also change, to 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, and the facility won’t be open at all Saturday and Sunday, its last weekend.
“It’s sad, because it’s like there aren’t a lot of activities to do in Cheyenne anyway,” he said. “So why are we closing this down? It’s at least like something where there’s stuff to do like swimming or playing basketball or just working out.”
Vanwey brought friends with him who also use the Y regularly, as well as a friend who has never yet been.
“I come with my cousin to work out and stuff,” Ayanna Colin told Cowboy State Daily. “This makes me sad, and I don’t understand why. Like they already closed Johnson Pool. Now this pool is closing, too.”
Johnson Swimming Pool isn’t affiliated with the Y. It was part of the Cheyenne Aquatic Center, located at 303 E. Eight Street, and permanently closed in August after more than 70 years of use. But its recent closing makes the Y’s potential shutdown doubly hard for Cheyenne recreation center users.
Cheyenne’s YMCA, at 1426 E. Lincolnway, has been in use almost 70 years as well. It opened its doors in 1958 and has been in continuous use since then.
Four years ago, it was taken over by YMCA of the Rockies, according to YMCA of Northern Colorado & Southern Wyoming CEO Chris Coker.
“It would have closed within 90 days of us getting there,” he said. “And we have not been able to turn it around, in spite of stuff that we’ve done over time to try and make it a little bit better. It just hasn’t gotten better financially.”
Cheyenne’s YMCA is about 800 members shy of breaking even operationally, Coker said. But it needs around $8 million in maintenance and repairs.
“We’ve literally dropped a couple of million dollars into it to try and get it back in shape,” Coker added. “The membership isn’t there, the usage isn’t there, the donations aren’t there. So, it’s just not sustainable. We’ve almost bankrupted all of our Ys trying to keep that one open. I can’t lose seven Ys for one.”
A group of people play a game of pickleball at the Cheyenne YMCA on Monday. the YMCA will close for good Sept. 26. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Michael Vanwey, left, and Ayanna Colin, visited the YMCA on Monday, somewhat for nostalgia's sake, after they heard the facility will close Sept. 26. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
The swimming pool at the YMCA was not busy at 3 p.m. Monday, but fills up later in the evening with swim classes and water aerobics. The facility will shut down Sept. 26, however. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
The Cheyenne YMCA will close for good Sept. 26. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
Pool Closure Was A Canary In The Coal Mine
This isn’t the first time the YMCA in Cheyenne has had a close call.
Late last year, the YMCA announced it would be closing its pools, due to costly maintenance that the facility could no longer afford.
That lost an immediate 250 or so members, Coker said.
Not long after that announcement, the Maury & Bonnie Brown Foundation stepped forward with a donation to save the YMCA’s shuttered pool, which brought most, if not all, of the 250 members back.
“The problem is, even though we got the pool back up and open, that didn’t fix the underlying membership issue,” Coker said. “It fixed the pool, but not the revenue. It’s like putting new tires on the car, but it’s still an old car.”
The facility is losing around $800,000 annually at its present membership levels, Coker said.
“I guess if a ton of people joined in the next two weeks, it could turn around,” Coker said. “Somebody has to step up as a donor in the next couple weeks, or a thousand people have to join, that sort of thing.”
Even after the membership levels are fixed, though, the facility would still need $8 million in repairs to become fully sound, Coker said.
That’s over and above what the Brown Foundation has already provided to repair the swimming pool complex, which includes a large-sized hot tub particularly popular with those who suffer from joint or other pain.
“I have nothing but praise and thanks for the Brown Foundation,” Coker added. “It was super cool of the family, the Brown Foundation, to give us that money to try and see, one last shot, if it would work, but you just can’t keep putting money into something that apparently the community, I’m not sure wants.”
Insurance Companies Scrimp On Silver Sneakers Program
The YMCA, however, is often quite busy, which suggests there are lots of people like Vanwey who use the YMCA and appreciate it.
But some of those members aren’t paying the full cost of membership.
“The other business model with the Ys is that we have what’s called third-party pay,” Coker explained. “And so many of our seniors are on what we call Silver Sneakers, where the insurance company pays the Y for their membership, but they don’t pay us the full amount.”
Because of that, those members are paying around $40 per month, while the actual cost of the membership is more like $60 per month.
“We have a ton of members who pay us 70 cents on the dollar for (their memberships),” Coker said.
That difference can’t just be made up for by raising others’ rates, particularly in the current inflationary environment.
“We can all reasonably recognize how much more expensive life is than it was five years ago,” he said. “That hasn’t changed and so we can’t really charge what we should. We can’t raise prices ridiculously to cover that because then you chase more members away.”
Bad Triage Choice
The YMCA has been conducting surveys asking its members what they want to see at the center. Most of those survey responses dovetailed with ideas presented in a capital campaign for the Cheyenne YMCA. Things like better lockers, more parking, a bigger pool, an improved daycare.
The campaign, though, fizzled out with only about $600,000 raised.
“We couldn’t raise the money in the capital campaign to do those things,” Coker said. “It’s like people wanted stuff, but they didn’t want to, and I don’t mean it the way it sounds, but they wanted something, but they didn’t want to pay for it.”
Coker had planned to use the money the capital campaign had raised to upgrade the childcare center, but during the design phase it became clear the cost of the work exceeded the amount of money on hand.
Coker said the funds, less the amount used to pay for the design study, will be refunded to donors.
“We did go to the city and offered it to them as would you like to turn it into a rec center because it’s contiguous otherwise the park?” Coker said. “And the city was like, ‘No, we think it needs too much repair. It’s not a good investment for the tax dollars.”
Mayor Patrick Collins could not be reached for comment about the YMCA at the time this article was posted.
Coker said he respected the city’s decision.
“I think it would have been a great rec center for the city or for a church, or just another nonprofit foundation to come in and take it,” Coker said. “Is there a chance that it can be saved? Yes, but it has to happen in the next couple weeks, or 1,000 people have to join, that sort of thing.”
In that case, Coker said he would definitely consider more parking spaces for the YMCA, which is frequently quite busy.
“What kills me is I have been full-time in the Y since 1990, and I’ve opened a dozen Ys in my career,” he said. “I’ve never closed one. So emotionally, this is horrible. This is not what we do. This is not what we’re trained to do. But I can’t close seven to save one. It’s a really bad triage choice.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
