Ann Arbor YMCA reopens Tuesday afternoon after power outage
Editor's note: This story was updated at 4 p.m.
The Ann Arbor YMCA at 400 West Washington St.
File photo | AnnArbor.com
A blown transformer caused the power to go out at the building on West Washington Street in Ann Arbor about 8 p.m. Monday.
Though the building will be open to users of the wellness floor and gym, the pool won’t re-open until Wednesday morning at some point.
Dave Morris, senior director of health and wellness, said the pool may not be open when the YMCA building unlocks its doors at 5:30 a.m.
Those interested in swimming Wednesday morning should call the YMCA at (734) 996-9622 to find out the status of the pool.
DTE Energy crews arrived at the building at 10 a.m. Tuesday to begin work on a transformer that blew out, said Jan Hack, communications coordinator for the YMCA.
The YMCA was evacuated about 8 p.m. Monday after the power went out and the manager on duty smelled some natural gas, Hack said.
Morning and afternoon day camps hosted by the YMCA were cancelled today because Hack said they couldn’t run programs with the facility’s systems down. There are about 100 children enrolled in both the sessions combined, Hack said.
Hack said families were contacted through the YMCA’s text message system and by email notifications. Camp staff attempted to call families that weren’t accessible by other forms of communication, Hack said.
The pool was also closed as the pumps are not functional - meaning free swimming lessons offered through the Splash! program are also cancelled. About 300 children are registered for the Splash! sessions.
YMCA summer camps in Ypsilanti and at Camp Birkett remain on schedule today, Hack said.
DTE Energy spokesman Scott Simons confirmed that the outage was limited to the YMCA and had not affected the surrounding neighborhood.
Amy Biolchini covers Washtenaw County, health and environmental issues for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at (734) 623-2552, amybiolchini@annarbor.com or on Twitter.
Comments
Mike
Tue, Jun 19, 2012 : 7:28 p.m.
If only they used solar energy, it's such a sunny day...............
treetowncartel
Tue, Jun 19, 2012 : 5:56 p.m.
@nvr, Young man, I was once in your shoes. I said, I was down and out with the blues. I felt no man cared if I were alive. I felt the whole world was so jive ... That's when someone came up to me, And said, young man, take a walk up the street. It's a place there called the Y.M.C.A. They can start you back on your way. Oh, you aere at the Y, not the YMCA, maybe that explains why the staff wasn't as helpful as one would think.
nvragain
Tue, Jun 19, 2012 : 5:40 p.m.
I was playing basketball last night at the Y when the lights began to go out. We continued to play until our pickup game was finished. At that time we made our way over to the drinking fountains and noticed they too were not functioning. Many of us went down stairs to get a drink thinking that the outage was localized to just upstairs, at which point we realized all the lights were out, and no treadmills were going. Back up stairs we went to play more, when i noticed a smell of something burning, not sure what the smell was, possibly gas. I ran downstairs and notified the staff, who to my surprise, never called the fire department, at least they never called or showed up while I stood around. Yes, they asked us all to go downstairs, but with all the children, teens, and adults around, greater caution should have been taken. The staff at the YMCA should be taking an abundance of caution, and I was suprised to see that was not the case in my opinion.
xmo
Tue, Jun 19, 2012 : 4:13 p.m.
Thank You YMCA and Other Ann Arbor residents who are saving the planet!