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YMCA Center Moves Ahead

24 March 2004

 Dayton Daily News

Last hurdle for $8M facility cleared by Heights council

By Jim Babcock
Date: March 24, 2004

Huber Heights-Huber Heights residents can now expect to have a new YMCA community recreation center at their disposal by this time next yea.

A last hurdle to starting construction on the $8 million facility was cleared last week in a special City Council session held to approve a long-term partnership agreement with the YMCA of Greater Dayton.

The agreement had been on hold while YMCA officials worked out terms of a partnership agreement with Grandview Hospital.

The hospital will lease a 15,000-square-foot area of the 63,000-square –foot building that will house a doctor’s group wellness center.

Those negotiations began late last year after Good Samaritan Hospital withdrew from negotiations expected to make it the wellness center partner.

Good Samaritan has since been working with Huber Heights officials on finding a site for a proposed 50,000-square-foot satellite medical center that would be similar to a much larger Good Samaritan center in Englewood.

An enthusiastic City Council unanimously approved one ordinance and three resolutions that set the terms of the Huber Heights/YMCA partnership agreement, except in one instance.

Third Ward Councilman and Vice Mayor Seth Morgan voted against approval of a resolution providing for the city to pay off a $1.6 million portion of the YMCA’s construction bond financing debt.

But Morgan, who had objected to sharing in the bond debt from the beginning of negotiations with the YMCA, said he otherwise supports having a YMCA center in Huber Heights.

“And knowing that is going to pass, I’m going to continue to support it.” He said. “I’m sorry to rain on the parade like this. But I have to vote my conscience.”

Morgan’s support o the YMCA project has included serving with Councilman Mark Campbell as co-chairman of a city staff committee that helped raise a $2 million share of the YMCA center construction cost from private donations.

The Huber Heights community portion of the drive was primarily chaired by Huber Heights residents Doris Studebaker and Edward Hart.

With the $2million in hand the YMCA will finance the major portion of its $6 million bond debt through membership fees and lease payments from a Grandview Hospital doctors group and the Sulphur Grove United Methodist Church, which will use a recreation center all-purpose room for Sunday services.

Morgan’s fellow council members disagreed with his stance on sharing in the bond debt retirement and urged him to reconsider.

“This is going to be cornerstone of our community,” Councilwomen Jan Vargo said in her turn at responding. “As one council person, I’m very proud to be partners with the Y. This is absolutely the very best deal for the city. And I encourage my fellow council people to reconsider and vote yes.”

Other council members called the agreement a “win-win” situation” and said they feel very comfortable that the financial contribution agreement contains clauses fully protecting the city from suffering and financial harm through its investment.

In addition to voting 7-1 for the debt-sharing resolution, the council voted 8-0 for this accompanying legislation.

An ordinance authorizing City Manager, James Pierce to enter into a 99-year agreement leasing 16.5 acres of city-owned land to the YMCA for use as the community recreation/wellness center site.

The site, at the northeast corner of Brandt Pike and Shull Road, is land the Paul E. Grusenmeyer family donated to Huber Heights as part of a 2002 lawsuit settlement that provided for the remainder of the family’s 70.0 acre property be developed into condominium and apartment gated community surrounded by the linear city park and wetland reserve.

A resolution authorizing on independent contractor agreement under which the YMCA of Greater Dayton will managed and operated by the Huber Heights Parks and recreation department in January 2005.

The agreement is renewable annually for 20 years and the city will initially pay $1 a year for the YMCA’s services.

The arrangement is expect to save the city about $2 million in the next 20 years, effectively reducing its bond retirement cost to about $50,000 a year.
A resolution authorizing a pool management agreement under which the YMCA will manage the city’s Fishburg Road swimming pool complex staring in 2005.

The agreement provides the YMCA to manage the pool for a five-year period, with options for two five-year extensions.

The city will pay the YMCA $27,000 for its first year of services. The amount will increase three percent annually thereafter. The arrangement is expected to save the city $10,000 a year in pool operation costs.

Tim Helm, YMCA of Greater Dayton president and CEO, said City Council approval of the overall partnership agreement means construction of the new community recreation center can start as soon as the weather allows.

“So we should be breaking ground in the next couple of weeks. Then it generally takes about a year to build on of these, so it should be open for business by sometime in the first quarter of 2005,” he said.

Helm also said private donations for the Huber Heights community will continue to be welcome as the construction proceeds.

The YMCA of Greater Dayton also operated the Downtown YMCA in Dayton and community YMCA’s in West Dayton, Kettering and Eaton.

Huber Heights and the YMCA began talks early 2001 about the possibility of a community/wellness center in the city.

Tentative agreement was reached at the beginning of 2003 on a comprehensive plan for constructing the center under terms of now-approved partnership agreement.

In recommending City Council approval of the agreement, Campbell, who is chairman of the council’s administration committee, recounted he history, then credited Deputy City Manager Kevin Carver and the City staff for working “diligently with Dayton YMCA to bring us this evening’s actions, which are a cause for real celebration.”

Others council members cited Campbell and his committee for being instrumental in the successful negotiation of the agreement.

“I, too, have been following the work, especially yours, and we applaud you and your committee,” Mayor Jack Hensley said.