Rumors of the imminent demise of the McDonough Rec Center can go back from whence they came, according to Brad Meyer, a spokesman for the St. Paul Department of Parks and Recreation.
“We heard the rumors, but have no plans on closing at the end of summer,” said Meyer via email to the Scoop on Tuesday night.
That’s not to say all is well with the rec center, which serves many low-income youth from the North End and nearby McDonough Homes, which has more than 500 family units in 123 two-story buildings (and no, that’s not a typo).
The St. Paul Public Housing Agency — a separate body from the city itself — owns and runs the rec center, “and they have no plans to close anything, now or into the future,” Meyer said.
The city provides some management and programming for the rec center through a lease with the Public Housing Agency, and it’s been looking for a private nonprofit to take over those functions. The city will have to keep looking.
“We looked at bringing on a non-profit partner to help manage the rec. center space that we lease from the PHA as part of our budget reduction proposal last year, but didn’t have any takers, so that didn’t go anywhere,” Meyer said. That could still change if a viable nonprofit materializes.
Parks and Rec is planning on hosting a meeting with the Public Housing Agency and all the site partners, including Keystone, Headstart and others who share the space, to talk about tight budgets and future programming. “There will be no conversation about us closing the rec. center at the end of the summer,” said Meyer, via email. “We don’t own the rec. center, so we couldn’t close it, even if we wanted to.”