A potential partnership between the YMCA of Greater Seattle and the city of Kent could lead to construction of a YMCA facility in Kent.
City officials are considering a possible donation of park property on the East Hill to help speed up the process to get a new pool and recreational facility in town.
“The city has been in conversation with the YMCA for probably about four years now as we try to solve our future aquatic center needs,” City Parks Director Jeff Watling said at a City Council workshop last month. “They are a nonprofit agency that has an interest in serving the East Hill of Kent.”
The YMCA needs about 4 or 5 acres to build a facility, Watling said.
“A specific park site/location has not been finalized,” Watling said in an email. “We continue to explore this option and possible park locations with YMCA staff and with the Kent citizens group that the Y has formed.”
About 15 people from Kent are on a YMCA steering committee looking to bring a facility to Kent, said Nathan Phillips, YMCA regional director for South King County.
The YMCA formed the committee in 2013 that has met occasionally. Phillips said the committee expects to start meeting once a month beginning next year in an effort to finalize plans in Kent.
“In a few months we hope to have some great news,” Phillips said during a Monday phone interview. “We’re excited to see where the process takes us.”
The potential to use city property as a site could be a big boost to the process.
“The steering committee is very interested in that,” Phillips said. “It’s a very exciting possibility.”
Watling emphasized to the council that the project is YMCA driven.
“This is not a city-led endeavor,” Watling said. “The YMCA is an independent body with an independent board making an independent decision. It is a Y-led project that the city is looking for ways to partner.
“The idea of city property is if we consider this partnership the city is not in a position of cash or capital rich so do we consider providing property as part of this partnership and property that in a way takes community park space and now we have park space and a community recreational facility that creates much more community value.”
The city of Kent several years ago studied building a pool in the Valley but that project faded because of a lack of funds. The city runs the Kent Meridian Pool next to Kent-Meridian High School.
“The YMCA building a facility would be their decision, their discretion and their funding to build that building,” Watling said. “A YMCA typically has an aquatic facility component but it’s not of a community size. So one of the concepts is how might the city, the community or grant funding take a typical YMCA and have it become a community sized aquatic facility has well.”
Watling said the partnership could work to boost the city’s recreational opportunities.
“It is a way to add an additional recreational facility to this community to augment the services the city already does and at the same time get a community aquatic center that would replace an aging and extremely tired K-M pool that the King County built over 40 years ago and the city now owns,” he said.
Councilman Les Thomas pointed out that high school swim teams from Kent schools raised an issue in the past about whether the YMCA would build a large enough pool for competitions and give access to the teams.
Watling said that’s an issue that would need to be discussed if a proposal becomes specific. Two high schools use the K-M pool.
State legislators from the 47th District have shown an interest in possibly getting state capital funds to help support a YMCA on the East Hill, said Doug Levy, state lobbyist for the city of Kent, in a report to the council. The funds could be used for pre-construction costs to help put the project in a ready-to-build condition.
“This is not ready in 2015 or 2016 but you get into a two-year capital budget window do you just wait and maybe forfeit the chance to do some seed funding that could take this further down the line?” Levy said.
Councilwoman Deborah Ranniger said she would help go after state funds for the project.
“I’m definitely in favor and I will do whatever I can even if that means going to Olympia and knocking on doors,” Ranniger said.
The YMCA has 12 facilities in the Seattle area, including SeaTac and Auburn.
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