BOARDMAN YMCA officials offer peek at new facility

The site is geared to families.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- They have built, and are hoping the members come.
With dust from ongoing construction work in the air, painting not yet completed and some fixtures yet to be properly hung, YMCA officials opened the doors to the new D.D. & amp; Velma Davis Family YMCA here. The 80,000-square-foot facility will officially open in early September.
Ken Rudge, chief executive officer, said the facility will need about 10,000 additional members to be viable. About 750 memberships to the facility have been purchased to date, but Rudge said that number should increase dramatically once the facility is complete and open.
Bob Zajack, membership director, said the cost of a membership for the new facility will be the same as membership rates for the downtown facility after Jan. 1, 2004, which include $715.50 a year for families and $439.90 for a single adult. In addition, there is a one-time joining fee of $120 for families and $60 for adults. Members will be permitted to use either facility, though some downtown members will have to pay an extra fee based on when they bought their memberships.
Zajack said individuals who have been members of the downtown branch since before Jan. 1 of this year will be required to pay a one-time access fee of $40 for an individual and $80 per family to use the new facility. Those who bought memberships after Jan. 1 this year paid a different rate and do not have to pay the access fee.
What's there
The new facility will have many of the same amenities found in the downtown branch. There is a small chapel room for meditation, complete with stone imported from Jerusalem and inscribed with the Lord's Prayer. There is also a full gym surrounded by an elevated walking track, an aerobics room and a 75-foot lap pool.
There will be a dance studio on the upper level of the building and some treadmills and other equipment. Zajack said there will be free weights, but not as extensive as what is found in the downtown Youngstown facility.
The new facility, however, has a somewhat different feel and a few extra amenities because it is geared toward the family, said Zajack.
There are seven family changing rooms -- small rooms with locking doors where parents can change with their small children -- in the new facility. Zajack said the rooms are important to parents with small children of the opposite sex whom they do not want to let change in traditional locker rooms alone.
Besides the traditional lap pool, there will also be a splash pool with a section for kids to walk directly into the water at an incline. The splash pool will also have water sprayers and hoses for the entertainment of youngsters.
Looking ahead
Zajack said YMCA officials plan to add another splash pool to the outside of the facility. That pool, he said, should be in place by next summer.
The facility will also house a whirlpool. There will also be a therapy pool that will be used mostly by Humility of Mary Health Partners, which partnered with the YMCA in building the facility.
Parents who have small children and want to use the facility do not have to worry about baby sitters. There will be a nursery for children up to 8 years old.
Zajack said the new facility will be open every Sunday and most holidays.
The building cost about $13 million. Rudge said about $7 million of the construction cost was raised through donations, with the remainder having been financed. The facility will employ 75 to 100 people.
jgoodwin@vindy.com