LEWISTON — The YWCA of Central Maine may be on better financial footing than it was six years ago, but it still needs help fixing its roof, city councilors were told Tuesday.

Kathy Durgin-Leighton, executive director of the YWCA, asked city councilors for about $130,000 in community development block grant money to fix and replace the 45-year-old roof over the group’s 130 East Ave. swimming pool and headquarters.

“We’ve been doing a Band-Aid approach over the years, having contractors come in and do what they can,” Durgin-Leighton told councilors at Tuesday’s workshop meeting. “It is pretty severe. Thankfully, we did not have a difficult winter last year. But if we do have a difficult winter, who knows what could happen.”

The YWCA almost closed its doors in August 2010. The organization was mired in debt and owed $167,000 to vendors and $565,000 on its mortgage. A fundraising campaign collected more than $300,000 in three weeks, however, and it was saved.

“I’m pleased to say that we have turned it around significantly,” Durgin-Leighton said. “In 2010, we were in the red, losing about $209,000 per year. Last year, we ended the year about $69,000 in the black, so we are very pleased. But we do have an aging building.”

The building was built in 1971 and still has its original roof system. The roof is made up of three different kinds of material — a copper roof over most of the pool, a flat gravel roof over the rest of the building and a flat rubber roof connecting them.

“It’s the original roof and it’s 45 years old, so the roof does not owe us anything,” she said. “We’ve gotten all we can out of it, and then some.”

A September 2015 review found the roof had significant leaks and was in critical need of repair. A May 2016 study found those leaks had not damaged the building’s supporting structure, however.

“It’s just the roof, but that in itself is a lot of money,” she said.

Durgin-Leighton said the YWCA has about 1,000 regular members and many more nonmember users. It’s also the only pool for local high school swim teams and programs for special education programs and health agencies. The YWCA also provides summer camps and child care.

Durgin-Leighton said she hopes to get the work finished before winter.

“We are not replacing the copper sections with copper,” she said. “It will be replaced with a metal-seamed roof that can be painted to look like copper.”

Councilors said Tuesday they’d consider offering the grant and would put the matter on a future agenda.

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