What follows is a progress report as of Friday evening, Nov. 2, and our best timeline for the days to come regarding resumption of Westport Weston Family Y programs and services: Family Y staff and our team of contractors focused today on restoring temporary power to key electrical systems, including the Y’s phone and email networks. Both are now back in service.
Concurrently, our remediation experts, ServPro, continued with cleanup of our lower-level areas, specifically our Child Care Center, and will continue those efforts over the weekend.
A third sump pump was installed today, which has allowed us to stay ahead of the inflow of water that continues to seep into the sub-levels of our complex of buildings.
Electrical contractors have installed a temporary electrical panel that will provide us the ability to supply power from an external generator. This will allow us to distribute power to areas of the building, first focusing on the temporary space for Child Care and the rest of the Bedford Building.
Our target date to begin providing power to these portions of the Bedford Building is Monday. The next major task will be to bring power to the electrical panel located in the basement of the Stauffer Pool, which also flooded. As we do, we’ll be able to open up other areas of our facility.
Once power is restored to Bedford Building, most Y staff will be able to return to work and help with the effort to be able to open portions of the Y to our Members and community as feasible.
In addition to the offices and group fitness spaces in the Bedford Building, the first areas of the Y expected to reopen are the locker rooms (with hot water), both levels of our fitness center and the upper gym.
We estimate that we are at least one week from being able to supply heat throughout the Family Y.
Aquatics
During the storm surge, water came up through the ground and the drains in the basement of the Stauffer Pool, which has never happened before. That flooded the area where the pool heaters, filters, cholorinator and another main electric service is located. These areas will need to be repaired before the Stauffer Pool can be brought back online.
The Brophy Pool filters and other mechanical systems are all located in the basement of the Bedford Building, and that is where we had 20 feet of water, so that pool will be repaired separately. As repairs continue, we will update you with an estimate of when each pool will be back in service.
Ellen Johnston, Head Coach of the Water Rat swim team, has secured practice times at the Wilton YMCA for today. Practices for Saturday and Sunday and other scheduling updates have been posted on the Water Rat web page. We are very thankful of the Wilton YMCA’s generosity.
Child Care
Tasha Dennison and her staff are contacting every Y Child Care family directly. “Our teachers won’t go to bed tonight until we reach everyone,” she said Friday afternoon.
The Family Y’s Kinderkids and After School programs will resume once Westport schools reopen, with both the Kinderkids and After School children based at Long Lots elementary school.
As reported yesterday, we hope to procure a temporary license to provide Child Care services in the Bresslin and Bedford Rooms as soon as possible.
We have contacted officials at the State of Connecticut and have an appointment for Monday with an inspector able to issue a temporary license. The Department of Health has let us know they place a high priority on helping us restore services to the community. If all goes well, we will receive a temporary license and would be able to resume Child Care programming once heat is restored.
We appreciate the continued patience of our Child Care families, knowing that it will be at least a week before we can provide Child Care services onsite. We will be providing these families more detailed updates in the days to come.
Reciprocity at Other Local Ys
Please be aware that Family Y Members have reciprocal privileges at many YMCAs in our region. Before visiting a local Y that’s convenient to you, call ahead as some other Ys in our area have also experienced power outages and other interruptions of service and programs.
The Family Y will issue further updates and progress reports in the following days, and now that our internal email system is back up, we’ll be reaching out to specific groups, such as our Gymnastic and Dance programs and Travel Basketball teams.
