Tell me Y

Three tidbits that might be of interest to YMCA members:
1. After the long winter hiatus, workers have been making good progress on the parking lot being built on the hill across Race Street from the Kennett Y. A lot of earth has been moved, shrubs and trees have been planted, and there's now a set of steps leading down to the road.
2. In addition to inadequate parking, one of the most common complaints I hear about the Y is the deafening volume in some aerobics classes. Not only do some of the instructors turn the volume up to 11, but then they need to shriek to be heard over top of it. The sound carries well beyond the room where the class is held. One member at the Jennersville Y was so concerned that he even brought a decibel meter to class recently and documented that the volume significantly exceeded recommended standards (104 decibels in one class!).
I'm told that a sternly worded email went out from management asking instructors to keep the noise down. I'm also told similar emails have been sent out again and again. Management justifiably prides itself on its emphasis on safety; one could argue that this an important safety issue for our ears and not just a matter of taste.
(There is nothing new under the sun. From a book on colonial Latin America that I'm editing: "One traveler in the 1770s testily recorded that the sound [from a public dance] was so `annoying and disagreeable as to provoke one to stop up his ears and to cause the mules to stampede, and they are the most stolid and least flighty of animals'.”)
3. The Brandywine Valley Y is merging with the Upper Main Line Y effective Sept. 1, and the new organization will be called the YMCA of Greater Brandywine. (Back when I first joined the much smaller Y twenty-some years ago it was called the Kennett-Unionville Y.) According to the letter sent to members, after the merger becomes official we'll be able to use the Y facilities in Lionville, Berwyn and Malvern: "Consolidation will have no effect on membership and program fees, or on bank drafts. Creating a new Association will result in cost efficiencies and eliminate redundancies, which will stabilize rates and ensure a uniform method of establishing appropriate rates and fees."