WORKING TOGETHER
Current leases for community centre, youth centre, food depot about to end
The Loyola Youth Centre, the N.D.G. Food Depot and the Walkley Community Centre are all looking for new homes, so the borough is looking at the possibility of having them share a new building, but they need a plan by the end of the year.
The Loyola Youth Centre, the N.D.G. Food Depot and the Walkley Community Centre all have one thing in common — they need new, permanent homes, and the sooner the better.
Côte-des-Neiges — Notre-DamedeGrâce Mayor Russell Copeman has formed a committee to find a solution that could lead to the cohabitation of these three west-end organizations in a city-funded facility. The exploratory committee, comprised of organization heads and borough staff, will analyze the issue and search for potential sites as the groups face the end of their leases.
The aim is to have a feasible plan in place by Dec. 1, with one or more locations selected in northwestern N.D.G. The plan could entail leasing, buying or even building a new facility.
“The borough has been setting aside money every surplus because we knew we had to relocate the Walkley Centre and potentially the Loyola Centre as well,” said Copeman, suggesting other community groups could be brought into the mix.
There is room to manoeuvre financially, Copeman said.
He said Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre assured him the city would be open to offering some financial aid in 2018.
While all three organizations expressed interest in sharing space, the clock is ticking.
The N.D.G. Food Depot’s lease is up Dec. 31 and, with its home base of Trinity Memorial Church on Sherbrooke St. W. now owned by a private developer, it’s not certain how long the organization will be able to stay in 2018, according to director Daniel Rotman. The food bank has funding to buy or build a new facility, but finding space in N.D.G. has proved a difficult task in the four years since its former, longtime facility at the corner of Oxford Ave. and de Maisonneuve Blvd. was turned into condos.
“The idea of partnering with the Loyola and Walkley centres is really interesting from a community service standpoint,” Rotman said. “But we’re at a stage where we have to pursue all options.”
The Walkley Centre is based in a former McDonald’s at the corner of Côte-St-Luc Rd. and Walkley Ave., serving approximately 300 members of all ages. Borough officials negotiated a three-year lease that ends in 2019 with a possible oneyear renewal, but the owner has made it clear that he has other plans for the property, Copeman said.
Also, the facility doesn’t have a gym to adequately allow for the full range of sports and recreation services offered at the community centre. Those services include workshops, dance, a youth group, adult exercise classes and much more. Co-ordinator Kadi Diop said the hope is to continue growing those services, but suitable, accessible space is needed.
“We’re very excited to participate in this exploratory committee,” Diop said. “We very much hope that something wonderful comes out of it.”
As for the Loyola Youth Centre, its longtime facility at École Sainte-Catherine-de-Sienne on Somerled Ave. was shut down nearly two years ago when mould was discovered. The trailers that the organization had used since the ’90s have since been demolished and access to the school’s gym was barred.
It serves about 700 kids from age three to 17 in a neighbouring English Montreal School Board building they say is too small to hold the summer campers and after-school participants who come to study or join sport activities.
Basketball is a particular favourite at the centre and teenage boys “take up a lot of space,” co-ordinator Brigid Glustein said.
“On a Friday and Saturday night, we often have 50 to 60 teenagers who come to open gym and they can’t play in an elementary school gymnasium,” she said. “They’ll bust out of the gym.”
The lease with the EMSB is up in one year, Glustein said. Meanwhile, basketball is hosted in nearby high schools and the organization is getting by with a few classrooms, gym access and use of Loyola Park.
“The idea that different community groups can come together and keep their expertise and programming, but work together, I think is only going to make the community stronger,” she said.
“A lot of the families that come to Loyola or Walkley use the depot. A lot of the families that use the depot need references for sports, recreation or educational programming.”