During the past few months Triangle2 Research, a firm based out of White House, Tennesee did a phone survey of 604 households within a 7 minute drive of our site at 194th and Farmington. The purpose of the survey was to assess the feasibility and economics of a YMCA at that location. The results were presented to the long range planning group of the YMCA and CMPF site planning team on June 23. The summary is that this community would be very much supportive of such a facility. This is very encouraging news for us! If any of you are interested in the specifics of this survey, I have a copy in pdf format. Feel free to send me a request via email and I can forward this to you. Alternatively, see me after church on Sunday and I can give you more details verbally.
Yesterday, Pastor Scott and I participated in a meeting between executive staff at THPRD and YMCA. The meeting was held primarily to establish communication and open dialogue between those organizations. The conversation focused on a possible construction of a significant aquatic and exercise facility funded by the YMCA. We know that THPRD has been talking about future construction of another aquatic facility in our community, so this meeting was a first step in development of additional partnerships that would lead to meeting that need while avoiding the possible conflict of "dueling athletic facilities" by 2 non-profits.
Later that day, Scott, Trevor Sheffels, Megan Sheffels and I joined Bob Hall (CEO) and Bruce Patton (VP) of the YMCA. We traveled north together and visited an impressive new YMCA located in Gig Harbor, WA followed by another facility in Puyallup, WA. We spent the better part of 10 hours together that day with lots of driving time (in one minivan). It was time well spent! We got to know them and they got to know us. We also learned much about different ways YMCA's are constructed and managed in our communities. We are not done with this part of the process, but yesterday was a valuable first step. Future meetings will include visits at the Sherwood YMCA as well as other facilities close to home such as the Kroc Community Center in Salem.
Our next step together will be to select a suitable organization and perform a YMCA capital funding feasibilty study. This will involve development of more specific plans and concept drawings that will be used to educate potential high net-worth donors in our community and solicit their commitment to funding this project. Along the way as we finalize our commitment to the YMCA-CMPF partnership, we will be looking for additional partners to complete the project and help us meet our stewardship goals.
As always, if you have any questions about this or other site-related topics, feel free to contact me or other members of our site development team: Pastor Scott Peterson, Mat Sinclair, Jon Hughes and Paul John. Our team also includes these non-CMPF members: Mike Tharp of Norris, Beggs and Simpson Realtors, Bob LeFeber of Commercial Realty Advisors and Jeff Los Senior Architect at Ankrom Moisan Architects. Please keep all of us in your prayers as we move forward in development of this exciting project!
In His Name,
Doug Hoy
Chair Site Planning Team
