A group of residents in Winnipeg's Elmwood neighbourhood are worried that a community centre in the area could close its doors within weeks.

The Greater Council of Winnipeg Community Centres recently told the Lacrosse Club at the Kelvin Community Centre to remove $30,000-worth of equipment from the building by Thursday or risk losing access to it.

A group called Concerned Elmwood Neighbours is concerned that the move is a sign that the centre will be padlocked in the near future.

Group president Regan Wolfrom said his group had been given the impression that they could use the facility until programming wrapped up in the spring, but now he is worried about what lies in store for dozens of other groups using the building.

"My worry is that they are going to padlock the doors pretty much either in the middle of the night or the middle of the day, when we're not there," Wolfrom told the CBC.

"Then not only will we have to then have to instantly scramble to run programs maybe out of a garage, but also we might lose access to our own equipment, which we own or have borrowed, that is in the centre right now."

Steve Bemrose, the spokesman for the Greater Council of Winnipeg Community Centres, said the Lacrosse Club was told to remove its equipment immediately only because it does not have programming going on in the centre.

Bemrose said the council is working on a plan to close the community centre, and all other groups will be given ample notice before the facility closes.

"Notice could be given any day," he said Tuesday. "We're just working, making sure everything is organized, that the field house will be prepared to continue on once the main building is closed."

The centre could close permanently within a couple of weeks, Bemrose said, but its rinks, fields and field house will remain open.

Winnipeg city council voted to close Kelvin Community Centre in late January, despite protests of angry neighbourhood residents who crowded council chambers and hallways outside in a last-ditch fight to keep the centre open.

A city committee concluded earlier this year that the 57-year-old centre had been poorly used in the past, and was not worth upgrading. Instead, the committee said, the city will spend $3.9 million to expand the Bronx Community Club a few kilometres away.

In January, Wolfrom said residents will not give up their fight to keep the Kelvin centre open. If a padlock goes on the door, residents will take it off, he said. However, he would not elaborate on what other action residents would take.