By Ranjan Bhaduri
Albany, Mar 14, (THAINDIAN NEWS) YMCA has decided to put down the shutters on its Washington Avenue branch by the end of this month. It has informed the members of the closure and the move is being taken for diminishing membership and mounting losses. The branch of YMCA put up a notice saying that it is a very hard decision which has become unavoidable. J. David Brown, the CEO and president of YMCA said that inspite of the best wishes, closing the branch has become inevitable. The facility has been operating since the 1950s.

The letter sent to the members of the branch cited rising maintenance related expenses for old building, parking problems as well as falling membership has run into loss worth $400,000. Even the number of members has taken a nosedive over the years There was a time the branch of YMCA had 8500 members. Now, it has merely 2550 members. The drop in membership is related to the reduction in the population of the city as the CEO assumed earlier. The YMCA members will however be able to access 8 other branches in the area as it has been revealed.

However, a section of the residents want the facility to remain open and they want to bring out a rally for supporting their cause. In the last two decades, more YMCA branches have come up in the suburb of the region. The suburban branches have played a role in the reduction in the number of the members in the branch. Therefore, the matter of closure of the branch is still uncertain.