Organizers of a Scarborough YMCA want to build a Y on the Bessey School property and were expected to ask the Town Council about the idea on Wednesday night, after the Current’s deadline.
The group wants to announce a site choice at a public meeting scheduled for Monday, May 2, at 7 p.m. at the Scarborough High School cafeteria.
According to Town Council Chairman Jeffrey Messer, this is the first time the issue will be discussed with the council and the purpose of the discussion is to see if the town has any interest in transferring the land to the YMCA.
A portion of the meeting will be in executive session, although if the council is agreeable to the sale then the remainder of the process will be conducted in the public eye, Town Manager Ron Owens said.
The building and accompanying 12 acres are owned by the school district, which would have to agree to any change in ownership. Today the building is used primarily by Ruth’s Reusable Resources and as office space for the school district, and much of the land is wooded.
Superintendent Bill Michaud said Wednesday he was unaware of the upcoming discussion, but said the school would be open to the idea since it has no plans for the building’s future.
“Unfortunately there’s not an awful lot you can do to that building without a lot of renovations and costs,” Michaud said. “We don’t have any plans at this point to develop it for any instructional use.”
The YMCA has been searching for a new site since late last year when it declined the town’s offer for a two-acre site located next to Town Hall, saying the lot was not big enough. YMCA officials would like to facility to remain in the Oak Hill area because of the schools and its central location to the rest of the town.
According to Cyrus Hagge, chairman of the Cumberland County YMCA Board of Directors, the organization is searching for a 6- to 10-acre site. He said the committee has reviewed 11 possible sites, three of which are in the Oak Hill area. The other possibilities were on Payne Road and the Haigis Parkway. Of those sites three are promising and can accommodate a YMCA, Hagge said.
YMCA officials said they hope to name a site during the May 2 meeting, at which Y organizers will also provide an update on the project and ask for more volunteers.
Officials are searching for volunteers to serve on the committees that will organize the various aspects of the YMCA. There will be building, finance and programming committees. In addition, there will be advisory boards of directors for the Scarborough facility, which will most likely be created from members of the other committees.
The plans for the new facility have not been finalized and are only in the sketch phase now, but Hagge estimates that a basic facility will cost between $6 million to $8 million. If residents want a 50-meter pool, the additional cost will be somewhere between $2.5 to $3 million.
Once the initial building is constructed Hagge envisions that the building would be added to in the future and figures the facility will cost some $12 million once it is fully constructed.
All of the money for the project will have to be donated, because the YMCA does not take on long-term debt to build facilities.
The group is making progress. Hannaford Bros. has offered to support the project in a number of areas, according to Cumberland County YMCA CEO Dave Thompson.
In addition, the YMCA has contracted with fundraising consultant Community Counseling Services of New York, to help with the capital campaign. The YMCA has had good luck with the company and it was highly successful in helping raise money for the Portland YMCA renovation.
Hagge estimates that if everything goes smoothly, including the fundraising, the earliest the new facility could be competed is two-and-a-half to three years.
Organizers of a Scarborough YMCA are eyeing the Bessey School on Route 1 as a possible location.
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