Council vote closes Kelvin community centre

Winnipeg city council has voted to close Kelvin Community Centre, as Mayor Sam Katz had promised, over the protests of angry residents of the Elmwood neighbourhood.

Elmwood residents crowded council chambers and hallways outside onWednesday in alast-ditch fight to keep the centre open.

Delegation after delegation made the same points to council:

• The Kelvin Community Centre is a focal point of Elmwood.
• It diverts kids from gangs and crime, to sports and community events.
• It has been reinvigorated recently throughmore volunteers.

City council didn't back down andplans to go ahead with a plan to spend $3.9 million to expand the Bronx Community Club, a few kilometres away.

Councilis promising to keep Kelvin's rinks, fields and field house open, while closing the centre itself.

Regan Wolfrom, a resident who led the fight to keep the community centre going, accused Katz after the vote Wednesday of misleading voters.

"The mayor made committments to us. He said, 'If you make a go of this, if you actually show us some progress, I will support you.' He said that to us. He was lying," Wolfrom said, referring to Katz's commentsduring the civic election campaign in October.

"He's turning his back on Elmwood, he's turning his back on our children. And I can't stand for it, and I don't think this city can stand for it. So we need to change something and we need to change it now."

Without the programs at the Kelvincentre, residents argued, the spirit of the community will die, and the rinks and fields will turn into gathering places for kids to "smoke crack and get into trouble."

Earlier this month, the city's executive policy committee voted 6-1 in favour of closing the centre.

The committee concluded that the 57-year-old centre had been poorly used in the past, and was not worth upgrading. Instead, the committee said, the city will devote more money to the Bronx Community Club.

Wolfrom said residents will not give uptheir fight to keep the Kelvin centre open. If a padlock goes on the door, residents will take it off, he said. However, he would not elaborate on whatother action residents would take.