KI Community Center to remain open under current budget

FORSYTH TOWNSHIP — Due to budget issues, the Forsyth Township Board met tonight to consider closing the KI Sawyer Community Center at their board meeting at the Gwinn Clubhouse.

The current budget allows for the facility to remain operational until September 30th of this year, and the board voted to allow the facility to stay open until that date, in order for the Forsyth Community to consider fundraising options for the center.

Throughout the meeting, members of the public voiced their concerns on why they believed the center should remain open. According to Community Center staff, the facility feeds between 35 and 60 community members with food provided by the Y.M.C.A. daily, and many area children are able to use the Community Center as a safe place to wait until their parents get home from work.

“KI Sawyer is a struggling community, and they don’t bring in a lot of revenue because of the fact that they are a struggling community,” said Community Center advocate, Angela Carter. “The only way to change that is to build up that community so that property values go up, and more people want to move into that area, and the Community Center does that – it’s a ‘positive’ to that community.”

The Sawyer Community Alliance, the Sawyer Operations Authority, and the Upper Great Lakes Family Health Center had all sent letters to the Township Board asking it to consider maintaining current funding to keep the center running.