New Washington YMCA beginning to take shape

The supporting structure for the location of the new Washington YMCA has begun to take shape as crews began assembling the building Wednesday, June 26.

Amy Schulte, CEO of the YMCA of Washington County, said the building is pre-engineered and came in on 13 truckloads. Crews have begun to assemble the outside of the building and will begin to put the building together pieces at a time.

So far, the elevator shaft is constructed and the footings for the building poured. Once all the beams are up, concrete will be poured and electrical and plumbing work will begin. Work on the parking lot will begin soon as well, but will be done by a separate contractor. The contractor hired for the parking lot is facing weather delays on other projects and will have the parking lot done as time permits.

The funding gap for phase one of the $9.5 million project is slowly closing as $554,000 still is needed.

Phase one will consist of a full-sized gym, an elevated walking track, a community room, youth room, senior center, fitness rooms, weight and cardio areas and a dedicated spin room. Schulte said she is hoping to have the money raised by Oct. 1 and phase one completed by May 2020, despite being three weeks behind schedule due to weather delays. Plans for phase two have yet to be drawn up as Schulte said the board would like to complete the fundraising for phase one first before fundraising for phase two.

'On a construction project like this you have to spend money to raise money,” she said. 'You need to know what it is you're raising money for, you need to know the exact plan to get schematic drawings, (and) to get a budget.”

Fundraising first began in 2014 and Schulte said she is hopeful they will be able to have it all raised by the Oct. 1 deadline they have set for themselves.

'We've had some starts and stops in there, there have been some bumps along the road, but it's been a learning experience,” she said.

Once phase one is completed, the existing Y will stay open to give members access to the pool. Other areas of the building will be blocked off and Schulte said they are looking into options of leasing parts of the space to other area entities who may be able to use it.

The Washington County YMCA will continue to lease the Y on the Square space until June 2020. Once the lease is up, the space will close and all members will be directed to the new YMCA building, accessible 24/7. As crews continue to work through the heat and assemble the structure, Schulte said seeing the plan finally come together is a rewarding experience for all.

'The committee has always known that we have to commit to this project because if we don't, the end result would be that we would lose the ability to provide services to the community, so we've always known what our destiny is in the end, so having other people realizing that same vision is what we've really seen in the last few weeks with the progress the building has made,” she said.