Time to decide: YMCA ready to move forward on rec center partnership

Jan. 22—The Putnam County Family YMCA is willing to raise up to $10 million to support creation of an indoor recreation center in Crossville, and take on operations after it opens.

"We're definitely interested in coming to Cumberland County and we'd love to have a partnership with the city and see this project come to fruition," Mandy Perhay, CEO of the Cookeville nonprofit, told the Crossville City Council during its Jan. 11 retreat. "The YMCA is willing to bring some dollars to the table with a capital campaign to bring several million to take some off the city."

Most recent estimates for the facility were $35 to $40 million. Perhay suggested a split of $8 million raised for the facility and $2 million retained for start-up operating expenses to help the facility "break even" during the first few years.

"It's very important for the Y that this represent Crossville," Perhay said. "I think it's time to decide — do you want to go YMCA? Do you want to go parks and rec? Either one of them is a win for the city."

As part of its next steps, the council asked for sample operating agreements for a YMCA facility and a breakdown of how the city would pay for construction of the building.

Crossville Mayor R.J. Crawford said he was excited by the opportunity for a "public-private" partnership through a capital campaign. The nonprofit organization offers more opportunities to raise money in the community outside of the city's tax collections.

Council member Art Gernt said, "And the Y provides the city with far less risk [in operational costs]."

Council member Rob Harrison said the council needed a spreadsheet that showed revenue and payments out for 30 years.

"Model that out where I can see and look at the assumptions," Harrison said.

"There's a lot of what-ifs out there. It's very easy to talk ourselves out of this," said Council member Scot Shanks. "The city is in excellent shape. And the longer it takes us to decide what to do, the more expensive it gets."

Perhay has been working with Kevin Chamberlin with architectural firm Upland Design to tweak design plans for a YMCA. This includes reducing some of the square footage, particularly in the meeting space, to reduce costs.

"We were able to get rid of one of the stairwells, which can cut out some dollars," Chamberlin said.

The facility includes an aquatic facility, exercise area, gymnasium, child care areas and indoor walking track.

He did not have an updated cost estimate based on those reductions.

Crawford asked if there were additional reductions possible.

Perhay said the meeting rooms — reduced from two large rooms to one large room that can be partitioned to two smaller rooms — were a concern. In Cookeville, she has one small meeting room that can serve about 30 people. But it does stay busy, she added.

Gernt said one of the needs in the community was meeting space for nonprofit organizations, particularly event space for fundraising.

Crawford said Cumberland County is also looking at the issue of meeting space and has discussed a new facility near the existing Cumberland County Community Complex, which is also inside the city limits.

"Why not allow them to take care of that?" Crawford said. "I'm just trying to find a way to get the price tag down."

The city could look at that need later if the county doesn't build a new meeting facility.

Crawford said he'd like to see the city's cost in the "high $20s, low $30s" — meaning millions — that the city could pay for without new taxes.

The council hopes to continue its discussion of the recreation center and possible partnership at its Feb. 6 council work session. Crawford said the council needed to make a decision before it gets into its annual budget development in March.

Heather Mullinix is editor of the Crossville Chronicle. She covers schools and education in Cumberland County. She may be reached at hmullinix@crossville-chronicle.com.