YMCA to Proceed With Groundbreaking

Even with the final approval of its expansion plan still a few weeks away, the Bayside Family YMCA will break ground for its new facility next Thursday morning, Nov. 10.

“We’re still moving forward with the groundbreaking,” said Joe Martino, executive director of the Greater Providence YMCA’s Barrington facility.  “Of course, we can’t start full construction until the approval.”

The Barrington Planning Board continued until its Dec. 6 meeting a public hearing started last Tuesday, Nov. 1, on the revised expansion plan. All YMCA officials had expected to get a final approval at that meeting. The 'Y' scheduled the groundbreaking before that session.

But a review of the revised YMCA plan by Shawn Martin, the engineer hired by the town, resulted in a host of comments in a four-page memorandum submitted on Oct. 31. Martino said the YMCA received the report on the morning of Nov. 1.

“We did not have time to review Martin’s report before the meeting,” he said.

The Planning Board also did not have much time to review the report. So, they continued the public hearing.

“They wanted more time to gather information,” said Town Planner Phil Hervey.

The revised expansion plan shows a scaled-down facility, particularly the removal of a second floor. It moves the proposed stand-alone wellness center into the fitness center. And it builds the facility in two phases, not one as indicated in the master plan approved in 2010.

“We decided that we needed to keep a major portion of the building in operation,” Martino said. “If we built it in one phase, we couldn’t do that. We'd have no 'Y'."

The footprint of the building also is being reduced by about 10 feet around the facility, Martino said, which means a reduction of several thousand square feet of space.

“We’ve scaled down,” he said.

The scaling down is a result partly of the Bayside ‘Y’ not yet reaching its fundraising goal of $6.4 million for the facility.

“We have less than $950,000 to go,” Martino said. “We’ve raised more than $5 million in this economy when people said we couldn’t do it.”

By the end of phase 1, said Martino, there will be a fully functioning building with complete site development. So, the YMCA could stop there and have a much improved facility for members with a safer traffic pattern and a brand new parking area maintained completely by the 'Y'.

Phase 2 involves tearing down the current child-care building, which will be kept intact because the YMCA “needs a home for the kids in phase 1,” he said. The child-care center will be moved into the new building during phase 2.

Next Thursday’s groundbreaking will start at 10 am with a brief program in the gymnasium. The event will move outside for the actual breaking of ground with shovels, hard hats and photo opportunities.

“Then we’ll move back into the gym, where people can see the new renderings of the facility and enjoy some refreshments,” Martino said.

A video that takes guests on a tour of the facility also will be shown, he said.

The groundbreaking also will serve a second purpose. It will launch a “community campaign” of fundraising throughout the communities it serves, Barrington, Riverside, Warren and Bristol.

“We have 30 volunteers who will be canvassing friends and neighbors,” Martino said.

The goal of the “community campaign” is $100,000.