The Capital District YMCA says the Washington Avenue location will now stay open until May 1, but only to allow time for the city to come up with a new plan for the facility. Our Britt Godshalk has the details.

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The mayor said he's already reached out to area education leaders and city organizations and he'll spend the next month figuring out what city programs could be moved to the Washington Avenue YMCA and at what cost.

He said, "In these difficult financial times, I've been advised, stay away from a building like that, we can't afford to do this, but I truly believe that we can be very creative here in this city and get this done."

The facility has been on life support for years, with $400,000 of annual debt caused by low membership and high maintenance costs. It's unclear who would next own and maintain the aging building, but the Y estimates it'll take more than $2 million to restore it.

"Obviously we're going to need to offset costs here," said the mayor. "We don't have it in the city budget, I can tell you that. If it's a couple million dollars, we're going to have to find it. We're going to have to find a way to finance it. The programs that we have here, I'm committed to making sure they continue."

"This is something we wanted all along," said Washington Ave. YMCA Task Force member Corey Ellis. "We just wish we had been informed of this process going through so that way the things that have occurred in the last couple of weeks, the community wouldn't have to stand out there in rally and support if we had known earlier that this was a possibility."

Councilman Corey Ellis and other Y task force members protested here last week after they were notified by letter of the Y's ultimate closure. In a last-ditch effort to keep the doors open last month, they worked the phones promoting discounted rates and recruited 700 new members.

Capital District YMCA President and CEO David Brown said, "At the end of the day, the revenue that we generated in membership dollars was almost identical to what it was a year ago."

Even with the Y's departure, Ellis said Wednesday's announcement is a win for local residents.

He said, "We believe that because of our work trying to keep the Y open and our demand to make this building functional, our voices have been heard."

So everyone seems to be on the same page at this point, all hoping for a better future for a facility that has only operated in the black twice in 20 years.