By Jason Emerson
Editor
Should there be a YMCA in Cazenovia? Efforts are currently underway to investigate the need and the desire of the community to have such a facility in either the village or town.
The idea, if wanted by residents, may not mean the construction of a massive new building within the community, however — there are concepts being considered to center it at Cazenovia College and offer YMCA programs as various existing satellite locations throughout the village, such as Common Grounds or Cazenovia district school buildings.
“The YMCA does not build YMCAs; communities build YMCAs. The YMCA is a locally owned charity – it is owned by the community that runs it – every YMCA is different, no two are alike, so it could take a lot of forms,” said Chris Iven, executive director, East Area Family YMCA, who is part of the Cazenovia idea discussion. “It’s what a community wants and needs, combined with what the community has as assets – where those two meet is often where you could have a YMCA.”
And Cazenovia already has assets at Cazenovia College, where the Schneeweiss Athletic Complex has a pool, fitness facility and outdoor turf field.
“We have an existing facility that naturally serves as a base of operations, so the college’s participation is seen as vital to the project going forward,” said David Bergh, vice president for planning and institutional effectiveness at Cazenovia College, who is the point person for the concept.
The college facilities are not big enough to do this, however, and would require expansion and upgrades that are not in the institution’s budget. “We want to be partners, but this truly needs community sponsorship and funding,” Bergh said.
And that is the key for this idea in Cazenovia, Bergh said, that it is a community initiative. The current working committee on the idea — that has met twice so far — includes representatives from the Cazenovia village and town governments, Cazenovia College, Cazenovia Central School District, Cazenovia chamber of commerce, CACDA and Cazenovia Joint Youth Recreation Program.
“All of these discussions have been very preliminary. If we move forward there will be a lot more opportunity for public input,” Bergh said. “We’re in exploration mode at this point.”
“We’re very supportive of the idea — more recreational opportunities in the village is great,” said Mayor Kurt Wheeler, who emphasized that this idea is only in the initial planning stages. “I think there’s a lot of interest [in the community for this],” he said.
The idea of a YMCA in Cazenovia was broached a few years ago, and while it did not result in a YMCA, that effort actually spurred the creation of RecDesk, Cazenovia’s Virtual Community Center/online community information hub that was launched last month. The website allows Cazenovia area residents to learn about and register for local recreational opportunities and activities.
“We found [at that time] a lot going on already here, there was just not a really easy way to find out about things, so that committee’s efforts resulted in RecDesk,” said Lauren Lines, CACDA executive director, who is part of the YMCA committee. “I am involved in the current committee and I am encouraged to continue to explore these options.”
One option is to use the existing college facilities and have other programs at other existing village venues; another idea is to enlarge the college’s facilities to have every YMCA program in one location; a third option is to build a new YMCA building someplace within the town or village.
The next step in the process is to undertake a feasibility study to see if there is both a want and a need in Cazenovia for a YMCA, as well what size of a facility to build — if one is built — where to locate it and what types of programs to offer in it, Bergh said. That study would be conducted by a group called FourSquare Research Inc., which has done numerous YMCA feasibility studies in other communities, and would cost approximately, $25,000.
If it is decided to pursue the study for Cazenovia, the YMCA working committee would have to then find funding sources to pay for the survey, Bergh said.
If the survey is completed, it will “give us good idea of our path forward,” Iven said.
“What I’m impressed about with Cazenovia first is the very defined understanding of what community is. Everyone at table knows each other, interacts, trusts each other … that’s a really positive sign,” Iven said. “The YMCA has long tradition of collaborating with community partners … I would say YMCA’s role will become more involved as people become more involved. There are lots of paths forward; I could see couple of different directions.”
But both Iven and Bergh said this idea has a long way to go — years — if it is decided to bring it to fruition. Both the Fayetteville and Baldwinsville YMCAs took a decade to complete, Iven said, although Cazenovia has a “pretty big head start” given its existing facilities and cohesive community and he would be surprised if it took that long.
Bergh said that no matter the outcome of these preliminary discussions, the collaboration between the various groups in the YMCA committee has been positive. “Who knows, maybe we’ll keep this group together no matter what,” he said. “I think that’s only a good thing.”