YMCA Partners with City Rec Center

WOODLAND, CA -- The Superior California YMCA will take over fitness facility operations at the Community and Senior Center in Woodland, CA, after the city council unanimously voted last week to rent the facility to the Y for five years.

The center’s fitness facility has been ready for use since March 2009 but was never opened after local health club owners complained to the city council about the potential for unfair competition with the private sector, according to the Daily Democrat.

City staff members issued a request for proposals to locate a private group that would operate the fitness center, and the Superior California YMCA answered the call.

The YMCA already runs a preschool and after-school program in Yolo County, CA, but the Y was looking to expand its services to include fitness and healthy lifestyle options for communities in that area, Thomas Lowden, Superior California YMCA president and CEO, told local media.

Rent payments from the YMCA are expected to provide the city with about $38,000 for its general fund during the first 12 months of the agreement.

The fitness facility is slated to open for public use on March 1. Lowden said the Y also plans to offer group exercise classes and childhood obesity prevention programs at the center.