Other Maine Ys are thriving

For our story Y move? Because, leaders say, the alternative is the slow death of the almost century-old L-A institution, we took at how other YMCAs are faring around the state.

BANGOR — The Bangor YMCA is thriving with a newly completed $2.2 million renovation and plans for a 20,000-square-foot expansion.

It was made possible by merging the city’s YMCA and YWCA in 2008, Chief Executive Officer Mike Seile said.

“A long feasibility study determined that the YWCA building was better-suited for future renovations and expansion,” he said.

Like other newer Maine Ys, it has two pools, one for competitions and another for therapeutic work. There is a cardio fitness center and a weight room, a wing dedicated to child care and a large youth-mentoring program. The institution also operates three summer camps.

AUGUSTA — This city’s old YMCA building with its wide front lawn and columned exterior was torn down in September. It had been empty for five years.

“In 2006, we built roughly a $10 million facility right across from the state Capitol building,” said Mark Yerrick, chief executive officer of the Kennebec Valley YMCA. Since then, the nonprofit organization has been thriving.

“We were averaging about half-a-million dollars for membership (revenue) and now we’re averaging close to a million,” he said.

The new YMCA has a dance studio, an indoor track, a racquetball court and a gymnasium named for benefactor Harold Alfond.

There is a satellite branch in Manchester with fitness and group exercise rooms, a track and locker rooms. But the major amenities are in the downtown Augusta location. It includes a small, therapeutic pool and a larger one with plenty of room.

“We have an eight-lane competition swimming pool, which is twice the size of what we had at the old Y,” Yerrick said.

BATH — The Bath Area Family YMCA spent decades in this city’s downtown, its brick structure filling a corner of Front Street.

However, in April 2001 a new, $7 million, 58,000-square-foot facility opened beside a residential neighborhood on Centre Street.

It sports an eight-lane, competitive swimming pool, a warmer therapy pool, an indoor track, racquetball courts and other amenities.

When it opened, the YMCA membership doubled, Executive Director Sabrina Murphy said.

“There was a huge, huge instant growth in membership,” she said.

“In 2003, we did a feasibility study and started a capital campaign to build a Y in the town of Scarborough,” said Helen Brena, chief executive officer. “That was not successful. At that time, there wasn’t the donations available to raise the dollars we needed to build the facility.”

They also figured that the three facilities already covered the county, each with unique services and amenities.

“It was for the best that that didn’t happen,” Brena said of the Scarborough initiative.

The county YMCA built the Casco Bay branch in Freeport in 1996, specializing in child care for children while parents worked out and adapting to the needs of people with mental or physical handicaps.

Around 2000, when the Libra Foundation was making its renovation to the Pineland Center in New Gloucester, the county Y added that branch as a way of incorporating the center’s outdoor trails. That location, the smallest of the three, also has a bowling alley.

And in 2006, the Portland Branch reopened its Forest Avenue location following a $4 million renovation. Among the specialties are a squash and racquetball court and a men’s residence program, aimed at helping homeless men find permanent housing.

Like the YMCA in Auburn, it is located on a downtown lot without room to grow. Adding the branches was a way of working around the problem. For example, the New Gloucester branch uses the outdoors for its “Walk to Run” and Nordic walking classes, which is impossible at most other Ys.

“Each facility has something unique, but they also have things in common,” Brena said. Each branch has fitness equipment and at least one pool.