We’ve heard from the Save Malcolm Yonge Gym group. Later today, they plan to file a motion for a bond amount to be set for them to proceed with a hearing on their request for a temporary injunction while they gather petitions to force a referendum.
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I spoke with former Councilwoman Sherri Myers about why she voted to shift funds budgeted for Malcolm Yonge Gym repairs to Magee Field. We also discussed why she wants a referendum on the gym’s demolition.
Here are my notes:
In 2018, the former parks and rec director, Brian Cooper, lobbied Myers to support building soccer fields in the Mallory Height area. He also committed to spending a million dollars on a special-needs community resource center at Tippin Park, at the intersection of Tippin Avenue and John Carroll Drive.
Myers said the city went as far as to issue an RFQ for the center and held meetings with potential architects.
When Mayor Grover Robinson wanted the council to declare the Malcolm Yonge Gym surplus during the budget workshops in 2020, Cooper did not tell her about a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Lighthouse Private Christian Academy for the gym. He said the facility was seldom used by the public.
Myers voted to shift the $715,000 to Magee Field but balked at giving up the gym because of the MOU. I did find the minutes of the Sept. 9, 2020 budget meeting, which shows $715,000 being transferred away from Malcolm Yonge Gym and “$3,193,902 -Tippin Community Center and athletic field.”
Neither Lighthouse nor Cooper mentioned any issues with the arches. I asked her why the $715,000 was budgeted for the gym. She didn’t know – “That’s a good question.”
Later Myers and Robinson stopped talking. Cooper halted any discussion of the resource center at Tippin Park.
At his presser in June 2022, Mayor Robinson announced the city had canceled a public input meeting regarding improvements to the Tippin Park Community Center, expressing concerns over “some projections of what some people were saying it ought to be.”
“The neighborhood meetings that we have are there for the neighborhoods to tell us what they want,” Robinson said. “The community center really needs to be designed and programmed to do what the community wants.”
Read more.
Why support a referendum?
Myers has lost faith in the city staff. She would like the gym converted to be accessible for children and adults with disabilities, possibly using the gym for wheelchair basketball.
Correction: I posted earlier that Sherri Myers had termed out of office by June 2022. She didn’t leave office until November 2022.
