Intelligencer Journal
Lancaster New Era
Cindy Stauffer, Staff Writer
Sep 24, 2009 00:13 EST
The treadmills with their individual TVs. The indoor running track. The yoga room. The gleaming pool. The expansive windows with views of the city. The I-Zone with its interactive video games for kids.
"Let the fun begin," said state Sen. Lloyd Smucker Wednesday at the grand opening of the new Lancaster YMCA City Center.
Supporters and members used a giant scissors to cut a red ribbon, clearing the way for people to pour into the $9 million, three-story facility at 265 Harrisburg Ave., between Clipper Magazine Stadium and the Lancaster Arts Hotel.
Starting at 5 a.m. today, members were able to jog, lift weights, stretch, play basketball, sit in a sauna and do lots of other activities in the facility.
The Y moved to the new building from its previous home in the 500 block of North Queen Street. The Y had occupied the Queen Street building since 1967, expanding it onto an adjacent property along Prince Street in the mid-1980s.
Lancaster General Health purchased the 1.8-acre property for $4.9 million in 2006.
LGH has not yet decided what to do with the property, said spokeswoman Frieda Schmidt. It is developing a master plan for the tract, in conjunction with other properties it jointly owns along Harrisburg Pike near Franklin & Marshall College.
LGH's purchase of the Y property, which was announced in 2004, propelled the Y in several new directions.
The Y launched a search for a new city site and also announced plans to expand into the suburbs.
In May, it opened the Lampeter-Strasburg YMCA.
It considered a branch at Woodcrest Villa in East Hempfield Township but ran into zoning problems. Then, this summer, it signed an agreement with Mount Joy Borough to explore a center on a 12-acre site the borough owns.
But Wednesday the focus was on the opening of its new city site, which will continue the Y's 155 years of service (as of November) in Lancaster.
"The Lancaster YMCA has some deep roots here within Lancaster County," said Jeff Kenderdine, chief executive officer of the Lancaster Family YMCA Association but, he added, "The only constant in life is change."
The new city facility, which has more than 5,900 members, is modern and sparkling. An environmentally friendly "green facility," it has 43 pieces of cardio equipment as well as other equipment and free weights in its ground-floor fitness area.
Also on the first floor is the pool. On the second floor is a gymnasium, exercise rooms, a youth room and a mezzanine that looks down onto the pool. On the third floor is a running track that is elevated and circles the gymnasium, as well as a youth room and an outdoor patio.
A highlight of the new property is a stained-glass window originally purchased by local educator and former Mayor J.P. McCaskey for the Y when it built a new building at Orange and Queen streets in 1901. In storage since 1965, the window was restored and now hangs in the lobby of the new building.
The Y is not done growing, Kenderdine said.
It will examine the recreational and fitness needs in Mount Joy and see how it can meet them.
"There's not a definitive timetable because the development of a project like that will go as fast as community leaders are willing and able to take it," he said. "If we are able to meet the need, so be it; that's our mission."
http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/242586