Young man, there\u2019s no need to feel down \u2014 unless you\u2019re a member of a longtime Lehigh Valley YMCA location.<\/p>\n
After more than 50 years in operation, the Suburban North branch in Catasauqua is set to close next month. Jan. 4 will be its last day of operation.<\/p>\n
River Crossing YMCA<\/a>, which oversees locations in Lehigh, Northampton and Bucks counties, as well as Hunterdon County, New Jersey, announced the closure to its members last week,\u00a0saying that keeping it open would be \u201cunsustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis decision was not made lightly or without exploring all possible alternatives. The Suburban North branch has been serving the greater Catasauqua community for over 50 years,\u201d a statement from the organization reads. \u201cHowever, over recent years, despite significant facility and marketing investments to grow our membership, the operation of the branch has become increasingly unsustainable, running at a cost that puts significant financial stress on the association.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile we are proud to serve the active, loyal members who frequent the branch, there are not enough members to justify keeping the branch open,\u201d the statement continued.<\/p>\n Members of the branch will get to try other area locations for free for three months, and then can resume their paid membership April 1, said YMCA River Crossings spokesperson Amanda Wappes. Many of the North Branch members live within 15 minutes of other locations, according to the organization.<\/p>\n All staff at the Suburban North branch have been offered positions at other YMCA facilities. Additionally, some instructors will lead the same classes at the other branches.<\/p>\n In its statement, the River Crossing YMCA said it would also \u201ccontinue to serve children and families in our child care programs.\u201d Before- and after-school child care is still being offered at seven elementary schools in the Catasauqua, Northern Lehigh, Northampton Area and Whitehall-Coplay school districts. Its early childhood education child care program has been moved to the YMCA-LVHN Westgate center on Schoenersville Road in Bethlehem, which is less than five miles away.<\/p>\n \u201c\n<\/p>\n Catasauqua resident Mike Younger, who has been a YMCA member for 50 years and was once a board member, said the closure of the Suburban North branch will affect roughly 340 people, and that 100 people use the location every day.<\/p>\n The closure comes a little more than a year after the creation of River Crossing YMCA<\/a>, which was formed when the Greater Valley YMCA merged with the YMCA of Bucks and Hunterdon counties in July 2024. Following the merger, the organization\u2019s leadership acknowledged that some members have complained about changes being made<\/a>, ranging from the departure of employees to the cancellation of some classes.<\/p>\n \u201cChange is never going to be everyone\u2019s cup of tea,\u201d River Crossing President and CEO Zane Moore said in an interview with The Morning Call earlier this year. \u201cNo matter how beautifully it is rolled out, it\u2019s still going to be change.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Younger alleged that following the merger, members of the Catasauqua branch have not had any control over its future. He said there has been little communication from the new organization about day-to-day operations at the location.<\/p>\n Younger also said he believed the location was sustainable because of the support of its members and the surrounding communities.<\/p>\n \u201cHow can something run sustainably for 49 years, and when an outside entity takes it over, it\u2019s not sustainable any longer?\u201d he said. \u201cThe YMCA mission was always about commitment to family and community. And now an outside source is dictating policy that comes down to dollars and cents.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Young man, there\u2019s no need to feel down \u2014 unless you\u2019re a member of a longtime Lehigh Valley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,8469,433,182,139,31986,3656,4729,434,28,28534,432,1654],"class_list":{"0":"post-58478","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-catasauqua","12":"tag-lehigh-county","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-north-catasauqua","16":"tag-north-whitehall-township","17":"tag-northampton","18":"tag-northampton-county","19":"tag-pennsylvania","20":"tag-slatington","21":"tag-top-stories-tmc","22":"tag-whitehall-township"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}