NEWS

Y Sets Sights on Mahackeno

By Jennifer Connic westport@thehour.com
Printed in the The Hour

“We are totally focused on Mahackeno for a full facility and a new YMCA,” said Richard Foot, Westport-Weston YMCA executive director. “This will ensure our future strength and help us meet the community needs.”

The downtown facility — which is located on the corner of Main Street and Post Road East — would need to be sold to a private developer to help raise money, he said, together with a capital campaign.

Foot said the facility is not serving the needs of the local YMCA now, and it is certain that will not change in the future. “We are constrained by the space, and it is draining our financial resources that we could be using for programs,” he said.

Foot said nearly $700,000 is spent each year on capital repairs to the downtown facility and its operating maintenance costs. “It feels large with its 78,000 square feet, but the architecture means only 59,000 square feet of it is efficient space,” he said.

Trudy Denton, a Mahackeno Steering Committee member, said two years ago the YMCA leadership surveyed the membership and found that the facility was not meeting the needs of the members. Denton said aquatic facilities to provide swim instruction for 1,000 children each session are needed. “We are the principal community swim instructors,” she said. “We view it as our responsibility.” There is also family-oriented programming that is not offered, she said, because of the lack of space.

Foot said approximately 12 percent of the YMCA members cannot access programs because of the current facility, and there is no parking specifically for the downtown site. “Drop-off on Church Lane is a challenge,” he said. Denton said the committee analyzed 30 properties in four communities, but none were large enough, so the committee turned to property it owns.

Rosemary Halstead, YMCA board of directors president, said the properties analyzed were either not large enough or too expensive. Officials considered splitting the facilities, but once the operation costs were analyzed, it did not make sense to move forward with that idea, she said. Also, she said, there would be different groups of members using each building. “We would have different contingents of members shuttling around, and we are not going to do that,” she said.

Denton said the committee also analyzed upgrading the downtown facility, but it proved to be too costly and would require a two-year shutdown. Foot said while plans for Mahackeno are still in the early stages, a traffic study and environmental study are being completed.

He said the YMCA owns Sunny Lane, which is adjacent to the Red Barn leading to the camp, and there is ample forested area on the 30-acre property between the camp and the neighboring residential properties. “We want to be sensitive to (the neighbor’s) concerns and want to be good neighbors,” Denton said. Halstead said the YMCA leadership was sensitive to desires to keep the facility downtown, but it cannot be done.

Other properties were analyzed and they were either not viable or large enough to host a new YMCA facility, she said. “If we could stay downtown, we would do that, but there is no place to go,” she said. “We are moving forward. Each year we delay, we spend more money here.”

Foot said the YMCA leadership is also sensitive to protecting the historic facade of the current facility, and is working with the Planning and Zoning Commission in creating a downtown historic district. Additionally, if the building is torn down, the replacing building could not be larger than 10,000 square feet, Foot said, and a developer would not give up the additional space already in place.

Jennifer Connic covers Westport and Weston. She can be reached at (203) 354-1043 or at westport@thehour.com.