Providing a home for the Next organization

The Birmingham City Commission, city workers, the Ad Hoc Senior/Recreation Center Committee and officials with the Next organization and the YMCA have certainly been consumed for just shy of two years as they have plowed through the mountain of details and decisions surrounding the proposed new Next senior/recreation center for the city.

City officials in June of 2023 purchased what was then the building housing the YMCA at 400 E. Lincoln, with the intent of providing a home for the Next senior services organization that had been anchored at the Midvale School which the Birmingham School District intends to make a facility for an early childhood center.

The nature of the proposed city center has changed a bit since the old YMCA building was bought by the city for $2 million, $500,000 of which was put up by the Next organization. For a variety of reasons, it was determined that rehabbing the E. Lincoln structure was not the logical way to proceed so now the city is looking at constructing a new facility to house Next, the YMCA and provide a recreation place for city residents.

As of this writing unofficial word has it that Next and the YMCA have pretty much agreed on the use of space in the new building, so one more hurdle has been crossed on a project that will cost in the neighborhood of $30 million, underwritten by bonds that will take 20 years to pay off.

Having watched with regularity the detailed discussions at city commission meetings on this project, we understand that commissioners can easily go astray at times, which we think they did in the last month with their efforts to reduce the size of the proposed building to help possibly lower construction costs. A few commissioners started raising questions of whether some activities by the Next organization couldn’t be held at other buildings in the area. There were even suggestion of having Next pursue possible shared space at The Community House (TCH) in the city, including use of the TCH kitchen.

We think in the process that something has gotten lost – the original intent of having sought out a permanent home for the programs and services of Next. And we can’t stress too much the word home.

We think the services and programs offered by Next help complete the overall offerings by the city of Birmingham. A permanent home is essential for Next which serves a specific segment of the population from here and surrounding member communities. The city of Birmingham is fortunate to have a long-established, professional group such as Next with which it can partner to offer – at a considerable savings we might add – services and programs for the older portion of the population that should be part of any progressive, well-planned community.

It makes no sense to force this group to attend Next offerings in multiple locations in the city as opposed having all activities centralized in one facility that becomes a familiar destination for this older population – a place they can call home.