1 /5 Jared Ebel: Dont let the song and advertising fool you. Your children ARE NOT SAFE at this facility.
Without a doubt the worst facility in Springfield. I will focus on value, cleanliness, and staff. Your children are NOT SAFE here. Please avoid at all costs.
Value. This YMCA is more than double the most expensive other gym in Springfield, IL. Despite this, the hours are absolutely unmanageable for anyone with a job.
Cleanliness. Without a doubt this is the dirtiest facility that I have ever been inside. Im assuming that because they are a large and powerful non-profit they dont feel the rules apply to them. Bloody rags are shoved in cupholders of machines. Water filters are left on "dirty" for months despite staff and management being alerted numerous times that they need changed. Spills/messes in the facility are not cleaned up for weeks. The basketball courts are littered with trash, slippery from water spills, and sticky from juice/sports drink spills. Mildewing towels are left overnight in the locker rooms and the health center always smells of mold. If you use a wet wipe on anything in the weight room, black grime will come up. Same with the floors. Same with the cardio equipment. The machines/benches/floors/weights/equipment are literally never cleaned unless you clean them yourself. There arent any areas where you can hang up cable attachments, so you have to mind your step or you will trip on them as people just throw them on the ground. The "clips" on the cable machines are rusted and do not latch. I witnessed someone using the pulldown cable machine, the attachment snapped off because the clip did not fasten and the person violently fell to the floor as the weights slammed. This was months ago and the YMCA has not replaced the $2 clip on the machine even though I witnessed this person report it to management. If they arent doing the little things right, like replacing faulty clips, they are certainly not doing the big things right. Additionally, in the corner of the weight room the other day I found discarded marijuana containers. The weight room frequently smells like weed.
Staff. The staff are comprised mostly of indifferent 16 year-old kids. They spend their time loudly cursing at the front desk, speaking in derogatory manners about women, and playing on their phones. Towels are kept behind the front desk. If you ask for one, thereby interrupting phone time, they will roll their eyes and sigh and treat it like the largest inconvenience in the world. Ive never seen them clean. They let their friends into the health center by giving them the passcode (shocker, unsupervised children dont exactly treat the facility with respect). One employee even cussed me out when I asked him to supervise the children (under 10 years old) who were throwing dumbbells at one another and swinging on exercise equipment. It was reported to management, who did nothing. The staff indifference extends to lifeguards as well as weight room supervisors. They are on their phones the entire time or napping or just not paying attention. They know that there are zero repercussions from management for their actions so they flat out do whatever they want.
After this post, Joey Greenwood contacted my from the Y. He cancelled my membership before calling and refunded my last month. He made zero promises to fix the safety issues. Issued no apology for his staff’s behavior. Said he asked staff to stay off their phones & that his staff told him the children I referenced were over 13. NOT that HE had checked, just that the children working for him promised they were older than 13. The staff member who cussed me out faced 0 repercussions. Joey said he’d “Talk to the supervisor of the cleaning contractor”. Not that he would tell his staff to clean.
Then the real reason for the response came, they wanted me to remove this review. Joey had 0 concern for the SAFETY OF CHILDREN. Just wanted to keep the marketing team happy. Complete failure of leadership.
