At the Feb. 27 regular board meeting of the Woodmen Hills Metropolitan District, the board approved an employment contract between the district and the YMCA to direct its park and recreation program, previously held by Eddie Avedikian.Evan Ela, attorney for the WHMD, said the district received the contract from the YMCA; his legal office reviewed it, and the board approved it. However, when it was sent back to the YMCA, they decided not to go forward with the contract, he said.Boyd Williams, interim president and chief executive officer of the YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region, said, ìThroughout this whole process (contract negotiations) we were doing our due diligence. Due to organizational changes within our organization, we did not think it was a wise decision to enter into a contract at this time. It is really based around our (staffing) capacity at this time.ìIt takes a great deal of work, and we wanted to make sure we could operate and support great programming; and we didnít think we could do that at this time. It was my recommendation to put that conversation on pause, but I understand that they may need to go forward but weíre open to the conversation further down the road, if the timing may be right.îAl Kreps, WHMD board secretary, wrote in an email to The New Falcon Herald, ìThe only information that the district received from the Y is that they withdrew their offer due to staffing concerns. Because the Y withdrew, the board did have a specially called public meeting on Friday morning to interview two potential candidates for the parks (and recreation director) position . . . two persons were interviewed, one local, the second from out of town, with considerable experience in managing Rec centers. Both parties interviewed very well.î
