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First glimpse of community center plans unveiled to public
It's going to take a village -- not the Village People -- to make a YMCA project a success for Greencastle, officials all but suggested Thursday night.
Memberships, volunteers, financial supporters and community partners all will be necessary in seeing the community center project go from a dream of more than 30 years to reality.
Toward that end, an enthusiastic audience of 75 residents got their first glimpse at what the proposed 51,000-square-foot Greencastle YMCA community center might look like.
Representatives of the Wabash Valley YMCA, project architect Tom Salzer of Bona Vita Architects and Greencastle Mayor Bill Dory shared where the project has been and where it's going now that momentum has swung to the positive side and the city has acquired 73.26 acres of property for the building of a community center and future development.
"We want this to be a place where people can come and connect and meet people," Ryan Penrod, executive director of the Wabash Valley YMCA, told the City Hall gathering.
The focus, he suggested, will be on "youth, wellness and a community gathering place" with the community center to offer fitness equipment, cardio workout opportunities and places to play basketball, volleyball and pickleball among other activities.
"The vision of the board," Penrod added, "is we can help make this community better."
Mayor Dory said the goal is "to develop a strong, long-term relationship with the community."
The YMCA, Penrod assured, is not coming in to take over programs already existing in the community. The YMCA, however, will operate the community center and be responsible for maintenance on a facility to be built by the city with funds accumulated by the Greencastle Redevelopment Commission.
Despite 30 percent of those in attendance indicating in a survey taken during the meeting that they would like to see an indoor pool as part of the project, no pool is planned in the initial phase due to its "expense and complexity," the mayor said. However, an area has been left open for a possible pool addition in a later phase.
"We need to have a broader community conversation about it," Mayor Dory said of the pool, noting that the city pool is 27 years old and three of the high schools have pools that are in that age range or older.
As designed presently, the building would include a 6,100-square-foot area reserved as leased space for a health care facility, which architect Salzer said might be a prompt or urgent care center, a family practice office or an office hosting rotating specialists. Putnam County Hospital has been involved in project discussions but its board has not taken action on the issue.
Other spaces include a teen center, child watch area, two basketball/volleyball courts, community space (which could be converted to locker rooms if a pool is included in a later phase of the project), workout area and offices.
Also, a two-lane walking/running track will go all the way around the second floor of the facility with its distance calibrated to 8.5 laps to a mile, Salzer noted.
Several things that people mentioned Thursday night, Mayor Dory said, will be discussed to see if there is enough existing space to implement them. Referring to them as "tweaks," the mayor pointed to the possibility of future tournaments, noting that would mean the need for bleachers and spectator space.
Once the community center is up and running, Penrod estimates a membership of 2,500-3,500, which is based on involvement in communities of similar size.
Rob York of Greencastle, who serves on the Wabash Valley YMCA Board of Directors and will lead fundraising for the Greencastle venture, said the community center offers a chance to "touch or have an opportunity to touch every member of the community."
Like many others, York said, he thought the YMCA was "some place to go work out," instead learning there are many programs and elements to it.
Heartened by the turnout Thursday night and the obvious community interest in the project, York said, "This tells me we have a huge opportunity to move this project forward."
York said the project is looking at an annual operating budget of $750,000 to $1 million with an estimated $600,000-$700,000 necessary for start-up costs.
Mayor Dory said no updated construction cost figure is available. The facility previously has been estimated at $8 million to $10 million but that was with lesser square footage planned.
In addition to individual contributions, York noted that fundraising efforts will also offer several different levels of naming rights available for corporate sponsors.
Meanwhile, the mayor was asked why the city just doesn't increase the Parks Department budget to cover operating costs.
"We don't have the ability to do that," Dory responded, "due to the limitations put on us by the state."
Besides that, he continued, "There's not a half-million dollars in our budget that I can take away from other departments and give to the park."
Mayor Dory reiterated that he wants "this to be a community center for the whole county," and that financial backing from memberships and sponsorships could be augmented by profit from tournament opportunities in the future.
Councilman Dave Murray, in the audience, asked Salzer for a construction timeline on the project, noting how YMCA officials have stressed the importance of capitalizing on the new year's fitness resolutions of many. He said anything later than October 2020 might negate that opportunity and put the project in a financial crisis by missing that prime sign-up period.
Salzer predicted an 18-month timeframe "from the time we're given the go-ahead to the time it's open."
That go-ahead, Mayor Dory told the Banner Graphic, will come as soon as an agreement between the YMCA Board and Redevelopment Commission is signed. The law firm Ice Miller of Indianapolis is in the process of drafting that for the city.
Individual membership costs have not yet been determined, Penrod said in response to a question. However, he predicted they would fall in the $15-$50 range monthly with multiple membership options available.
Looking at the site plan, the primary entrance to the community center site would be via an extension of Calbert Way. The site will also be connected via People Pathways.
As drawn, the site plan includes two commercial lots along State Road 240 to the west of the Farm Credit office at the corner of Ballard Lane and 240. The city could sell those and use the proceeds to help recoup some of its investment, Mayor Dory suggested.
The same is true for the 10- to 15-acre tract south of the community center layout that is zoned light industrial. In previous reports, the mayor has said interest in that property has already been expressed.
In an open-ended survey question asked by Wade Hampton of YMCA USA, audience members responded to what they want in an YMCA with such varied replies as a pool, indoor soccer, safe places for teens to gather, fitness classes, programs for seniors, kids' day care while working out, pickleball, a climbing wall, after-school day care, study space, a place for my children to be active, a sauna, after-school programs and accessibility for everyone.
Asked to describe in one word what a YMCA could mean to the community, Hampton got such responses as opportunity, dynamic, necessary, awesomeness, safe and familytime.
Not to mention the "Mary Poppins" favorite supercalifragilistic.
To that offering, Hampton responded, "We can work with that."