Restoration of Brown YMCA on hold as Council again declines to purchase building

Citizen efforts to restore the Claude C. Brown YMCA to a public community center remain on hold after the Selma City Council again said no to purchasing the building, even for $1.

The Council wants to hear from the YMCA Board before they move any further on the issue.

At its June 28 meeting, the Council rejected a resolution to purchase the abandoned building on Minter Street for $1 and eventually turn it over to the Selma Housing Authority. What the resolution describes as “a group of concerned citizens augmented by a broad spectrum of concerned parties who recognize the worth and value of Brown facility” would then work with the Housing Authority to restore the building as a publicly owned community center.

The Council already voted in April not to take ownership of the building because they did not want to assume any potential risks associated with the decaying structure. Some council members have expressed concern that there environmental cleanup could cost millions of dollars.

Mayor James Perkins Jr. presented a new resolution to the Council calling for the building to be turned over to the Selma Housing Authority to overcome the Council’s objections. In the resolution, the Housing Authority stipulates that they would only take the building after getting reports from an architect and an engineer, among other things.

That resolution failed by a 5-2 vote on June 28, with Michael Johnson and Atkin Jemison voting yes, and Troy Harvill, Christie Thomas, Clay Carmichael, Jannie Thomas and Council President Warren “Billy” Young voting no. Lesia James and Samuel Randolph were absent.

After the vote, Christie Thomas asked Young to invite the YMCA Board to a future council meeting to determine if the Y is still willing to sell the property for the token fee of $1. At a finance committee meeting on June 30, Harvill pointed out that the contract between the YMCA and the city that offered the building to the city for $1 dates back to 2013 and expired in 2016.  

The Brown YMCA has been abandoned for years, but the groundswell to restore the building came when Edmundite Missions, which is located next door to the empty Brown YMCA, proposed plans to purchase the building from the YMCA and tear it down. The space would then be used for outdoor recreation under the direction of the Edmundites.

Several community members, including one on June 28, have addressed the council since the no vote in April urging the council to reconsider. While speakers were complimentary of services provided by Edmundite Missions, several said they wanted the council to give interested community members a chance to restore the building themselves. 

The resolution that failed June 28 says the Housing Authority and residents who want to bring the building back to its former glory will try to raise $4 million for the restoration, and the city will kick in half of a hotel occupancy fee as a continuing funding source. The other half will go to the YMCA of Selma-Dallas County, also known as the Walker-Johnson YMCA.  

An engineering report done on the Brown YMCA in 2016 said it would cost $3 million to restore the 26,000-square-foot facility and $1 million a year to operate it.