Auburn-Lewiston YMCA acquires second downtown Rumford building

The former Department of Labor building at 35 Congress St. in Rumford was sold for $1 to the YMCA of Auburn-Lewiston by the Rumford Select Board on Thursday evening. Bruce Farrin/Rumford Falls Times

RUMFORD — The Select Board voted 5-0 Thursday evening to sell the former Department of Labor building at 35 Congress St. for $1 to the YMCA of Auburn-Lewiston.

Town Manager Stacy Carter said this building was donated to the town by Larry Costa, and the $1 cost was because of all the renovation work YMCA would need. The YMCA now has two buildings in downtown Rumford to develop day care and other programming.

“We certainly need more child care in this community,” Carter said. “Tom Bourret, our General Assistance director, has worked with a couple of families recently that are one-income families and the reason they’re not two-income families is because of child care. There’s not enough spots available. This will bring a great addition to the town to provide more child care spots, more employment, so we welcome that.”

“Welcome to Rumford, YMCA. We’re happy to have you here,” Board Chairman Chris Brennick said, followed by applause from the board and the audience. “An exciting day and another sign Rumford is moving ahead in the River Valley.”

Glen Holmes, chief volunteer and chairman on the YMCA board of directors, said, “Monies for this project is part of the upcoming national budget. Once that budget is approved, then we would have the funds to be able to do the work on the building. My guess is that hopefully next spring we’ll be able to start some work.”

Holmes added they’re probably looking at least 24 months for this project. “We’re going to utilize both buildings,” he said.

Steve Wallace, chief executive officer of YMCA of Auburn-Lewiston, said they will be seeking partnerships for things like child care, early childhood education and school age programs. “We’ve already started talking with other community partners about how we can work together.”

Holmes said, “We’re going to bring in more partners from all over, I’m sure. The intent is probably to bring three or four other organizations to partner with us on this.”

Wallace said they’ve talked to Friends of the River Valley, food pantries, Envision Rumford as well as with the Greater Rumford Community Center.

“We’re working with the spectrum of different organizations from mental health to full family type programming,” Wallace said.

With these two facilities, he said the 35 Congress St. location is more suited to the child care program, while the 60 River St., with the higher ceilings, may be used by the gymnastics program, presently at the Greater Rumford Community Center, and other programs.

Wallace said that depending on the needs of the community, there could be as many as 62 day care spots, with “as many as 34 kiddos below age 5 and 26 to 39 school-age children.”

He added, “Right now, we’re anticipating 15 jobs, including the site director, full time with benefits.”

The former Rumford Lodge of Elks building on River Street in Rumford was the first building in Rumford to host a YMCA Early Childhood Education Center. Bruce Farrin/Rumford Falls Times file

In February, the same YMCA announced they would be opening a day care center in the former Rumford Lodge of Elks, working with business partners Derek Tabor and Jeff Harris, owners of the 60 River St. facility.

Wallace said they’ve been working up to three years on this concept.

In February, he said the process began when Rumford Economic Development Director George O’Keefe, Carter and the Select Board reached out asking if the YMCA would consider expanding services.

“We go where people ask us to be, if there’s a need. We’re not there to compete with other folks or try to put somebody out of business,” said Wallace.

“We don’t like to call it child care anymore because there’s so much more. Our goal is to make sure the kiddos arrive at kindergarten ready to learn. Early childhood education is our mission, to make sure that kids are set up to succeed,” he said, adding that YMCA is the single largest child care provider in the state of Maine, as well as the country.

Wallace said the Rumford Early Childhood Education Center will be the first education center of its kind in Oxford County. “I have 25 full-time employees at my seven Y locations in Androscoggin County.”

“And that’s because when we actually hire the staff, they will job shadow and work at one of our other centers, go through all of their training, all of their certifications. We have our own internal program that includes CPR, first aid, AED, appropriate touch, mandatory reporting — all the things a conscious discipline, the things we feel are necessary to run, not just a child care center, but run a best-practice center,” he said.