New YMCA’s dedication is Saturday

• The New YMCA

The new Worthington Area YMCA-DeGroot Family Center and City of Worthington Aquatics Center is shown on the Worthington campus of Minnesota West Community and Technical College. (BRIAN KORTHALS/DAILY GLOBE)

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• Gallery: Worthington Area YMCA and City Aquatics Center
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WORTHINGTON — One year ago Monday, the groundbreaking for the new Worthington Area YMCA-DeGroot Family Center and City of Worthington Aquatics Center took place on the grounds of Minnesota West Community and Technical College.

This Saturday, the new Y will have its dedication and an open house in ceremonies beginning at 1 p.m. The day’s events will mark the end of a project that included nearly a decade of hoping, planning and working.

“We look forward to beginning this new journey of YMCA history,” said Andy Johnson, executive director of the Worthington Area YMCA.

While conversations about a new YMCA initiated in the late 1990s, the project — for all intents and purposes — began to move forward in 2005. Ron Wood, a Worthington City Council alderman and thenpresident of Minnesota West, was a large supporter of a partnership between the college and the Y. Minnesota West had received permission through special legislation more than four years previously to construct a building on campus that was not solely owned by the state.

“We have been talking about the Y being put at the college campus for a considerable length of time,” Wood told the Daily Globe for its Oct. 21, 2005, edition. “I’m a strong believer that we need a new Y — it doesn’t matter where it’s at. The bottom line is we’ve got to have a new YMCA if we’re going to address the diversity of our population — especially the young people.”

Wood saw the YMCA as a natural partner for Minnesota West, as it would allow the college could expand its physical and health education programming as a result. He also envisioned a facility that could be used not only by college students and faculty, but also by middle school students who attend classes nearby — along with residents of the neighboring senior housing facilities such as The Meadows and Golden Horizons.

A significant impetus to the new YMCA project came a little more than a month later when Greg DeGroot, president of Highland Manufacturing Inc., offered a halfmillion dollars on behalf of Highland to the YMCA building effort.

“This is somebody stepping forward and making a contribution in getting this effort off the ground,” Johnson said at the time. “We have not officially started the campaign. Our hope is that early in 2006, we’ll have the capital campaign ready to go.”

By July 2006, the city of Worthington had come on board for the new Y, which at that juncture was tentatively slated to be built on the Minnesota West campus at a cost of $5.1 million. The City of Worthington had agreed to pay the Y $146,000 per year for a period of 20 years, with city leaders stressing the money was for management of a new pool that will be part of the planned facility. The city has contracted with Y over the past several years for management of several programs for youths, including the outdoor swimming pool across from Centennial Park that was open for the final time this past summer.

“What we’re doing is spending the same amount of money and getting access to a 12-month-ayear facility,” Worthington Mayor Alan Oberloh said at the time. “The message we want to get out for residents of the City of Worthington is that this is in their best interests. This will allow year-round pool service by all city residents. We’re contracting for a service; we’re not building the building. We’re not building their pool — the money that we’re giving is money to provide pool services for the community.”

By September, the capital campaign to build a new Y had received 41 gifts totaling $1,002,000. And, in December 2006, Sioux Valley Hospital and Health System (now Sanford Health) in Sioux Falls, S.D., announced the donation of $300,000 to the campaign. That donation was intended to match the $300,000 pledged to the YMCA by Worthington Regional Hospital (now Sanford Regional Hospital Worthington).

At the end of January 2007, a total of $4.5 million had been raised for the new Y facility, which by now had been finalized as being located on the Minnesota West campus. A few months later, the project got another significant boost from the city, as council members voted unanimously during an April 30 special meeting to allocate approximately $4.5 million for a city-owned aquatics center, which would be part of the new Y.

“The city had already committed approximately $3 million in an agreement signed a couple of years ago to the pool project with the YMCA,” Alderman Mike Kuhle told the Daily Globe following the action. “We had no ownership and some input on the design.

“Now, with the city paying $4.5 million … we have ownership,” Kuhle continued. “We have the final say on design. We lease the pool to the YMCA, and the taxpayer gets out from under operational costs going forward. We are not subsidizing any other portion of the YMCA, and the YMCA will have to operate the pool out of their pocket, not the taxpayer.”

Six months after the city’s aquatics center announcement, YMCA staff and supporters — alongside numerous community leaders — participated in the official groundbreaking ceremony. The new, 45,000-square-foot facility was officially on the way, Johnson described several of the details of the building a few months later in the April 22, 2009 Daily Globe.

“There will be a six-lane, 25-meter (YARD) pool, a recreation pool with zerodepth entry, an outdoor aquatic center that will have zero-depth entry, a recreational area and a plunge area with two drop slides,” described Johnson of the City of Worthington Aquatics Center. “Both pools will include some waterpark type features, meaning pop jets and sprayers and structures like slides and an aquatic climbing wall. The aquatics center is probably the largest square footage increase when comparing the old building to the new building,” he stated. “We’re a four-lane, 25-yard pool right now, period … and Y members along with the general public will be able to use the aquatics center.”

Johnson added that the new Y’s gymnasium will feature a full, high school-sized court, as well as two “cross courts” that will be utilized for youth basketball and volleyball. Multipurpose areas will be used for meetings, exercise classes, youth programming and more.

Amenities for families with youths include a kids’ recreation area, a specific place for younger youths to play and a child-watch area that “will be an up-to-date, well-supervised place for members to drop off their young children while they’re using the facilities.” There will be women’s and girls’ — and men’s and boys’ — locker rooms, as well as family and special needs areas, plus a modern health and wellness area with all the equipment for cardiovascular, selectorized and free weights as well as a running track.

Another significant advantage to the new $9.6 million facility, Johnson pointed out, is that everything is one level and therefore accessible to all populations.

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