There seems to be no option to prevent Meadows Park Community Center from closing its doors after Friday. Several efforts are going on to find options that would help the city reopen the center in the near future.

Mayor Yemi Mobolade announced in September that Meadows Park would be closing as of October 10 as one of the biggest casualties of the city’s $31 million budget shortfall. one of four city-owned community centers in Colorado Springs and was chosen because it allegedly had the lowest attendance and use of the group.

a community meeting at Meadows Park planned for later this month to discuss the building’s future. will involve Mobolade, at least two members of the Colorado Springs City Council, and multiple neighbors and community leaders talking about the possible partnerships that could lead to new uses of the building.

Wednesday was the final Senior Lunch, a twice-a-week event where older residents met to eat together in the community center’s main room. Around 18 people were on hand for the lunch Wednesday.

Also in the room were two advisors from Mobolade’s office, Danielle Summerville and Thomas Thompson. were there to hear the senior’s concerns about losing the center and let them know about the upcoming October meeting that could help determine its future.

Summerville said that she had attended programs at Meadows Park while growing up. She and Thompson both told a skeptical crowd at the lunch that they were meeting with a variety of stakeholders who were interested in taking over the building for a similar purpose.

“The city’s funding of it is ending, that is what is happening, but there are other sources and other people in the community,” Thompson said. ” Is there something we can get together to start from scratch and see what are the needs of this area? How can we step back in?”

RISE Southeast Executive Director Joyce Salazar had helped to organize Wednesday’s visit and several of the other efforts to support Meadows Park. Salazar said that neighbors had reached out to her shortly after the announcement of Meadows Park’s impending closure. had worked with the city frequently and began making calls to help arrange the conversations.

“This is not the time to yell at anybody,” Salazar said ahead of Wednesday’s meeting. “Ask the questions that need to be asked, share the information about what you need from the center. If somebody new comes in and wants to bring planning or resources here, the community should be involved.”

slated to save around $775,000 by closing the center and letting go of the majority of its staff. was the biggest reduction of city staff among the 34 positions removed from the city in September.

Trish Sanders asked if the city had looked into grants that would help keep the building open. Sanders also pressed the city about why there would be one big cut at Meadows Park instead of smaller cuts across the four community centers.

“I can’t see hitting the worst-off place and not having taken into consideration taking things from the other ones to help subsidize and keep this place in progress,” Sanders said.

was the same idea that Brian Kates has been pushing over the past few weeks. Kates retired in August as the director of Meadows Park Community Center after nearly 30 years

said he had talked to several of the City Councilmembers about ways that they would keep Meadows Park open in the 2026 budget. was proposing an “alternative operations” model where all of the community centers operated at closer to 80% of their budget next year. Kates said that Meadows Park was already on track to run along those lines after the Parks Department cut the number of summer school programs and let the after-school program with Harrison School District 2 expire when the district…

“It’s much more complicated to reduce funding across all of the centers and find temporary sources. But if you really believe in these spaces, you’ll fight for them and do everything you can to keep them available to the public,” Kates said.

Another $70,000 could be spent on Meadows Park from the Pikes Peak Community Center Foundation. Kates said the foundation had been set up to collect donations that are earmarked for each community center, so the Meadows Park funds there may not be easily transferred to other projects.

argued that the attendance numbers at the building had been grossly undercounted.

A Performance Indicator Report obtained by some of the residents estimated that the programs brought in more than 13,000 participants over the course of 2025. included repeat visitors but still meant anywhere from 530 to 4,000 trips through the community center per month.

“That’s a very respectable number for a small little community center in Stratton Meadows,” Kates said. Kates added that the estimate didn’t count people who came by outside of the programs, whether it was kids asking for homework help or someone getting out of the heat.

“We want to make sure all these programs don’t close, so we can keep something going. Especially if it’s something with programs for the kids to come back to,” said Sheryle Nix, another supportive visitor to Meadows Park.