DONLEY: State-of-the-art YMCA best choice for city

On my way to work this morning, I was driving down the country road and on the radio I heard a long commercial that was talking about a family that had been living in a city.

The ad went on to talk about how after they moved to a smaller community the kids’ grades had gotten better and the parents now were able to let the kids ride bikes outside without the worries of the big cities.

In the back of my head, I was thinking this was going to be another Haysville commercial when it ended by saying “Newton, the way life should be.”

I had a sense of pride.

Now, I may live out in the country and work in Newton, but I still call Newton home. Running a business here in Newton, I take pride in our town and the people in it.

When I visit with my customers and attend ribbon cuttings and open houses, I get the opportunity to visit with lots of people from all different walks of life.

In these very hard times, people are always talking about saving money.

People are very blessed here in Newton; we have our own movie theater, a great downtown, beautiful parks, an incredible hospital and one of the best golf courses in the country. Newton deserves to have the best of the best!

During the past three years, several studies have been done by several organizations asking the same question: “What would bring more people to Newton both to live and to visit,” and the same thing keeps popping up: a new recreation facility.

Loyal Kansan readers have seen several articles on this subject. They have talked repeatedly about expanding the current recreation center or bringing the YMCA to town.

I have had the pleasure to attend countless meetings on this topic and have listened to the city of Newton address this question.

I have listened to the NRC talk about what they would like to do to the existing facility. I have listened to the school board, the City and the NRC discuss this topic.

I have listened to the YMCA talk about the benefits it could bring to the city of Newton. And I have listened to independent companies tell the residents of Newton what they could have.

After all of these meetings, I have come to the conclusion it is time for someone to talk about what the costs could be to move forward and the options that could be used to lessen the tax burden on the residents of our community.

Currently, your tax dollars go to pay for the operation of the current rec center. This is an ongoing cost that will continue for as long as we subsidize recreation in Newton.

This money is collected through the school tax levy and is given to the NRC to operate and maintain existing facilities. All taxpayers in the school district pay for this with their tax dollars.

If you choose to be a member of the rec center, you also have to pay an additional fee on top of your taxes. The current plan presented by the rec commission is asking for the taxpayers to spend millions of dollars to expand the current recreational facilities.

This also will come with increased annual operating expenses. Under this plan, we will be paying more money to have less than what the YMCA has to offer.

The YMCA model is a very simple plan. If we were to build a new state-of-the-art building and have the YMCA operate it at their expense, it would lessen the forecasted tax burden on the taxpayer and save millions of dollars in the future.

This would give Newton a competitive advantage over smaller communities that are all attracting people to get away from the bigger cities and to live life the way it should be.

I can tell you firsthand about what the YMCA offers because I am a paying member. When my family looked at moving out of Park City, we looked at what Newton had to offer and one of our biggest hangups was that we did not want to give up our access to the YMCA.

Our son is almost 3 years old and takes swimming lessons in the heated zero-entry indoor pool at the north YMCA. My wife also drives to the YMCA every morning to meet her girlfriends to walk on the indoor track or to run outside on the bike paths that run along the parking lot.

It is more than a building; it is a place where people feel safe. It is a community focal point.

I once heard in a meeting 230 people from the Newton area are YMCA members. This shows you people want more and better when it comes to recreation.

Being a loyal Kansan reader, I get discouraged when I hear people write in saying the YMCA is going to leave disadvantaged or lower-income people out.

Just today at lunch I heard a woman saying she helps mentally challenged people find jobs and she could not wait until we can get a YMCA.

Her clients would be able to afford to belong to a YMCA because, given their income, they would only have to pay $5 per month for a membership and could have the amenities that are not offered at the rec center like the zero-entry pool.

I get encouraged when I hear people talk about how the YMCA busses kids from all of the surrounding schools so they can take free swimming lessons regardless if they are members.

When I toured the new YMCA out in West Wichita, I was impressed to see a state-of-the-art gymnastics room that, if we had one here in Newton, may be able to help save our gymnastics program.

At the meeting at 5:30 p.m. June 18, a group of business people and residents of Newton brought a plan to a joint session of the school board, NRC and city.

This plan gives the option of inviting the YMCA to operate the recreation programs in Newton. This plan has the least impact on the taxpayer and does more than any plan to date to invite more people to visit and to move to Newton.

I encourage you to write to the city of Newton (City Hall, 201 E. Sixth St., P.O. Box 426, Newton KS 67114; the school board at 308 E. First St., Newton KS 67114; and the NRC at 415 N. Poplar St., Newton KS 67114) and tell them to move forward as quickly as we can to bring the YMCA to town and to spend your tax dollars and your children’s tax dollars wisely.

Just imagine how many fire stations, libraries, parks and bike paths we could build with the $38 million we will save by not paying to operate recreation in Newton during the next 30 years.

If you would like to read more about this idea, visit www.ybackers.org.

Brian Donley resides in rural Valley Center and works in Newton.