Officials consider future of Cairns center, set meeting

A community meeting to address questions and concerns over the Cairns Community Center and its programs following the ouster of its previous director will be held Monday.

The informational meeting is meant to address rumors of a closure or sale of Cairns Center — both of which are untrue — as well as to provide general information about the center, according to Mayor Laura Kropp.

“We’ve had a group of residents asking us at the last couple of City Commission meetings about what will happen there,” Kropp said Wednesday. “So we want to talk it through with the community as a whole.”

The Macomb Daily reported in February the city had terminated a leasing contract arrangement with TCB Mentoring and its director, Thomas Barnes, and took back the keys from Barnes. Officials said his inability to acquire sufficient funding for his programs was a key reason for termination of the lease.

In the weeks following the change, a core group of residents has attended City Commission meetings, where they have asked officials specific questions about the facility that have centered on issues such the rental policy, center hours, and creating an “action plan” for the site.

Located on Orchard and Clemens streets, the center is owned by the city. Since Barnes’ departure, the Cairns Center is under the direction of the Department of Public works director and Recreation coordinator, according to City Manager Gregg Shipman.

Kropp said there are no plans to close or sell the building. She noted the city has gone after several grants totaling nearly $400,000 to help support operations and improvements at the Cairns Community Center. Other money has gone to repairing the parking lot and other facilities.

“Cairns is one of the nic- est buildings we have,” the mayor said.

“Our plan is to keep it at this point and not sell the property. Whenever there are times of transition, the natural thing to do is speculate on what will happen. We hope to communicate that message to the community next week.”

Cairns provides a variety of recreational and educational programs. The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Monday. Cairns Community Center is located at 58 Orchard. For more information, call 586-464-0728 or go online to mountclemens.gov/ recreation.