Fitness clubs raise concerns about proposed YMCA

Fitness clubs raise concerns about proposed YMCA CENTREVILLE–Representatives of three Queen Anne’s County fitness centers are concerned about the impact a proposed YMCA might have on their businesses in the future.

  They made their comments to the county commissioners during a recent informational meeting that included an update on the YMCA. They raised concerns about the kind of facility the YMCA might ultimately become and the possibility of county funds covering part of the cost.

  The YMCA of the Chesapeake is proposing to build a YMCA on part of 40 acres of county-owned property across Route 304 from Queen Anne’s County High School. A feasibility study it conducted two years ago determined that there is a need for a wade-in therapeutic pool and a lap pool.

  The pool at Chesapeake College, which has been used both for therapeutic purposes and by high school swim teams, is closing in March.

  Earlier figures showed an estimated cost of about $10.5 million for the YMCA and its pools, said Gregg Todd, County Administrator. The YMCA is doing a fundraising feasibility study to see how much it can raise in the community to allow the project to go forward, he said.

  “If they can raise $3 million, which they originally projected, they’re committed to contributing $3 million toward the project themselves, which left a balance of roughly $4 million to be filled,” he said. “The commissioners looked at that and said…$4 million basically to get a community center with two pools seemed like a reasonable investment, when a new pool at a high school would cost us $3-1/2 million.”

  There has been no commitment by the commissioners yet. The feasibility study is to be completed in June, Todd said.

  “The underlying concern here is that if this commission is going to show support for this project, it represents to me in some ways a lot of what I think is going wrong in America,” John Murphy of Island Athletic Club in Grasonville said during a public comment period. “It is pinning our government against our private sector.”

  He said he wants to know more about how the YMCA is acquiring its property and what it will add to the tax base.

  Murphy said he has yet to see a pool by itself succeed financially and is concerned that it might become more than just a pool.

  “If a pool is viable and everything, and I openly question that but there are those think it is, then I say more power to the Y for that,” Murphy said. “But if the Y expands beyond just being a pool entity and everything, trying to offset the cost of its overhead, and starts to directly compete with those of us in the private sector, I have some legitimate and serious concerns.”

  Mike Kalvaitis of Club One in Chester said his organization favors a pool and has been trying to help make that happen. But he, too, is concerned about the YMCA expanding.

  “Beyond the pool or a rec center, if it goes to a full fitness service center that competes with the local industry and that business has been given aid financially to make it happen, and it wouldn’t happen otherwise, that’s direct competition with the local people who voted for you all,” he said.

  He pointed out that his businesses in Queen Anne’s County have a roughly $2 million payroll and he doesn’t “see a reason why we would continue contributing and taking part in having a business in this county if we know that at any one given time we’re going to be in competition with our own county.”

  Kalvaitis said he believes it would affect the local fitness industry as a whole.

  He said he also wonders where county money for such a project is coming from, “given the fact that we’ve been told about these deficits for so long.”

  Daniel Kelly of Commitment Fitness in Centreville said he recently paid thousands of dollars in recording fees “and to hear that my money is going to a YMCA is astounding.” He said he has always been for a pool in the county and has offered to help make one a reality, including on land in back of his building, but  “if the YMCA comes into town less than a mile from my doorstep I’ll be finished. I’ll have to close. And I’d like to know…has anyone thought about that?”

  Commissioner Dave Olds responded that he is against the YMCA project.

  Kelly said pools don’t make money because they cost a lot to maintain and heat. “The money comes from the membership base. That’s the only place it can come from,” Kelly said. “If you have a membership base, I can’t compete with it. I’d just like everybody to think about that.”

  The YMCA on Route 304 would be a separate building and a separate project from a proposed county building on the property there that would consolidate some county departments that are now spread around the Centreville area in rental properties, Todd said.