SARANAC LAKE – Diane Roberts is stepping down after six years as director of the Saranac Lake Youth Center.

Roberts said she and her husband need to spend more time caring for their elderly parents in Florida, “so family comes first.”

“They’re just all alone, and they need us,” she said. “We’ll still be keeping our house up here and splitting time between Saranac Lake and Florida. It’s just a matter that if there was an emergency and we needed to go down there, it wouldn’t be fair for me to close up the youth center to take care of family business.”

Roberts started volunteering at the youth center in March 2010, three months after its former director, Michael Scaringe, was arrested on charges he raped a girl who frequented the center. Scaringe was later convicted and sentenced to seven years in state prison.

The center was also in a financial crisis at the time Roberts got involved. Its board didn’t have enough money to open the facility or hire a new director, and it couldn’t get money from its funding sources without showing that it was still operating.

After reaching out to the community for help, new volunteers came forward, and the board reopened the youth center on a volunteer basis and launched a fundraising appeal. The center was moved from a small storefront on Broadway, next to the Saranac Lake Adult Center, to its current location at the corner of Woodruff and Church streets.

Roberts was hired as director in October 2010. She promised to stabilize and rejuvenate the youth center. She said last week that she’s achieved those goals.

“I think the youth center has grown,” Roberts said. “It’s very stable. Everything has been humming along, and we haven’t had any problems. It’s just been a really good, stable, safe, secure place for the kids to come to, and I just really feel it was my responsibility to pass that on, my legacy.”

Just having someone at the helm all the time for such a long time has been key, Roberts said. The center has also benefited from a core group of volunteers and from the support and donations of people in the community, she said.

“When we moved in here, we really didn’t have that much,” Roberts said. “The community has been great about donating things to us. We’ve got two pool tables, a ping-pong table and an air hockey table. We’ve got two televisions and computers. We’ve got a full kitchenette in there, and we’ve been providing after-school snacks. That’s encouraged kids to come after school and stay. We’ve got everything a teenager could want, pretty much.”

“Instead of going to your friend’s house after school, this is the friend’s house after school, with adult supervision.”

The center serves kids in middle and high school and is open during the months when school is in session. Statistics provided by Roberts show it had a total of 2,406 visits over the 105 days it was open from January through June, averaging between 15 and 36 daily visits during that span.

While the numbers have been strong, keeping the center going financially has been “an incredible struggle,” Roberts said.

“To tell you the truth, we’re hanging on by our fingernails and have been for all the years that I’ve been here,” she said.

Financial statements provided by Roberts show the youth center had a roughly $4,000 budget deficit last year; it reported $38,000 in expenses but only collected $34,000 in revenue.

The center’s board has started a search for a new director, but Roberts said finding someone who wants the job and is willing to take a lower salary will be key.

“When I was first hired, the board wanted to pay me a fair salary, but I ran the numbers and said, ‘You can’t afford to do that,'” she said. “I’ve taken a much lesser salary just to keep the place open year to year. Right now, we either need to find somebody who is willing to take that salary, or we need to find some new ways of raising revenue to pay the expenses here.”

Roberts will remain the center’s director through December, which she said will give her time to train her replacement. She said she’ll still be around, even after she steps down.

“When I’m in town, I’ll be a member of the board, I’ll volunteer, and I’ll help with fundraising, “she said. “I’m not disappearing, but stuff like this happens in our lives and we’ve got to take care of it.”