Winnipeg community centre demolished

A wrecking crew tore down one of Winnipeg's oldest community centres on Wednesday, after months of meetings and rallies in the Elmwood community.

By Wednesday afternoon, only rubble, dust and a field house remained where the Kelvin Community Club once stood on Henderson Highway.

Winnipeg city council voted to close the 58-year-old centre in late January, despite the protests of neighbourhood residents who fought to keep the centre open.

The city decided the centre had been poorly used and was not worth upgrading. Instead, $3.9 million will be spent to expand the Bronx Community Club a few kilometres away.

Coun. Justin Swandel, chair of the city's property planning and development committee, says the city will sell the land that the main building occupied to help fund the expansion of the Bronx Community Club.

Kelvin's playing fields and the field house will remain.