With the imminent closure of the facility, a number of programs which utilize Joy for their operations have been left in limbo.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska - Joy Community Center is set to close on July 1 after Thursday’s meeting of the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly . The assembly voted 5-4 against an ordinance which would have provided funding for the center to remain open while the borough made plans to divest itself from the facility.
The ordinance, sponsored by Assembly Member Kristan Kelly, would have funded JCC’s continued operations through the end of 2025. A proposed substitute from Assembly Member David Guttenberg would have extended that date even further, until June 30, 2026, the end of the next fiscal year. With the imminent closure of the facility, a number of programs which utilize Joy for their operations have been left in limbo. Robyn Capp, President of the Interior Girls Softball Association , said she was a little heartbroken hearing that the facility would close. During the winter, the IGSA uses the community center for a gym program that runs every Sunday, so players can practice. “I think it’s just important that we continue to support the youth in our community and we make sure that they have safe places to go all year round,” Capp said. This program transferred to JCC when the organization found out last summer that they could no longer use West Valley High School’s gym. “It just felt like one more blow when it came to Joy and one more blow when it came to trying to find space for our girls to practice all winter long,” Capp said. The IGSA, she said, is still trying to figure out what is going to happen next and how they are going to keep players practicing all year long. “Joy really was the only place for us when we found out that we had lost our previous space,” Capp explained. “This really was the only space that we could really rent to run the program.” Assembly Member Barbara Haney voted against keeping the facility open longer. Haney told Alaska’s News Source last week that part of the reason she voted to close the facility on May 8 was because of maintenance costs over the next few years. “I think it’s time to take that facility, hand it over to private hands. Now, whether that’s a non-profit or a for-profit, I know that there are several entities that have expressed some interest in it,” Haney said, adding that other communities in the borough, including Two Rivers, Salcha and Ester, operate their own community areas using a non-profit model.“Now they want to reopen Joy, but I don’t see a proposal to take that money back from the school district,” Haney said Thursday. Instead, Haney would like to see the school district absorb some of the programs that are currently using Joy. “Why can’t the volleyball people and the ping pong people, and whatever other people there are, why can’t they use those facilities?” Haney asked. Other programs, she argued, could go back to places where they operated before the community center opened, including Mary Siah Recreation Area and the Senior Center, which reopened in June 2024 after a two-year renovation project. “This whole idea that we need a separate building just for adaptive programs, to me it’s just too costly,” said Haney. At Thursday’s meeting, Haney, Tammie Wilson, Brett Rotermund, Liz Reeves-Ramos and Nick LaJiness voted against the funding. Guttenberg, Kelly, Scott Crass and Mindy O’Neall voted in favor of the funding.Family members continue search for missing 62-year-old Ninilchik kayakerFrom relief to frustration - Anchorage reacts to mandatory ID law repeal
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