The Cook County Community YMCA is not yet open, but staff is on hand with limited hours to help people sign up for memberships. Member Service Desk Attendants Bob Faraone and Michaela Buchheit are two of the friendly faces that will greet you. Buchheit is also a group fitness instructor and personal trainer. A grand opening celebration with food, music and lots of fun is in the works for Saturday, January 4 from 1 – 4 p.m.
The finishing touches are frantically being completed as the Cook County Community YMCA prepares for its grand opening on Saturday, January 4, 2014 from 1 – 4 p.m. Amid the hustle and bustle of construction and cleanup, friendly YMCA staff members are standing by, ready to sign up members and to talk about the wide array of programs available for YMCA members.
A long time coming
It’s been a long path to this point. The process started in 1999 when community members discussed asking for a .5 percent sales tax to be used for recreation to help build a roof over the hockey rink and possibly a new ball field near the Cook County Curling Club/Community Center.
That modest plan led to conversation with county commissioners about an extension—and a changed purpose—for the 1 percent sales tax used for the Cook County – North Shore Hospital renovation and expansion. The hospital sales tax was collected from 1994 to March 2008.
Cook County Community YMCA Executive Director Emily Marshall has been having a great time giving tours of the new YMCA facility. During a recent tour, she gave a quick demonstration of one of the new pieces of exercise equipment, the assisted dip machine. In addition to this interesting new option, there are treadmills, traditional and seated elliptical machines, stationary bicycles, and weight machines, as well as a room full of power-lifting equipment.
As discussion continued on a potential new 1 percent sales tax, it was decided to take a comprehensive look at the community center and adjacent school grounds and the recreational activities that take place there. The Community Center Revitalization/Recreation Committee was formed in August 2005.
The Center for Changing Landscapes was hired to work with the committee to try to determine the best space for additional tennis courts, ball fields, a skateboard park, a better basketball court, large animal evacuation/ horse arena space, and building space to accommodate dance classes, large parties and conventions. In fall of 2006, the city of Grand Marais, Cook County and School District 166 approved the Community Center landscape plan.
In December 2006, a separate committee formed to look at the aging Grand Marais Municipal Swimming Pool, asked the Revitalization Committee to consider including space for the new pool at the community center. After many complicated meetings to resolve some legal issues surrounding the city pool, on March 4, 2009, members of the county board and Grand Marais city council agreed to work together toward development of a new jointly owned swimming pool at a new community center.
Throughout 2008 – 2009, the county board and various community members continued to work with Minnesota legislators tocreatea1percentrecreationtax for recreational amenities. In the fall of 2008, Mike Fischer from LHB Engineers was hired to bring together officials from the city, county, school, Grand Portage and townships to determine the best use of the potential 1 percent sales tax.
1 percent sales tax paves the way
Also moving forward were broadband and biomass district heating projects. Project supporters were seeking grant funding and asked the county board to include those projects in the 1 percent sales tax proposal. A bill was brought to Senator Tom Bakk and Representative David Dill to create the recreation and infrastructure sales tax.
The Minnesota legislature approved the law that allowed a voter referendum onwhetherornottoenacta1percent recreation and infrastructure sales tax early in 2009.
At a county board meeting in July 2009, the county board fine-tuned its list of proposed projects and dollar amounts. At that time the list included: $3.0 million for a county recreation complex in Grand Marais; $1.5 million for the Birch Grove recreation complex; $900,000 for Superior National at Lutsen golf course improvements; $9.2 million for countywide broadband infrastructure; $800,000 for the Grand Marais Public Library; and $12.0 million for the Cook County Community Center.
In August 2009, the county board voted to pursue those projects if the referendum was passed. The referendum passed in November 2009 and the county began collecting the 1 percent recreation and infrastructure tax on April 1, 2010.
Planning, planning and more planning
In June 2010, a Community Center Steering Committee was formed, consisting of five sub-groups focusing on major considerations in the project: ice, aquatics, staffing, youth, and finances. They began working with architects and owner’s representative ORB Management and the concept for a very large community center complex— totaling $14 million— was introduced to the community at a public meeting attended by over 100 people on May 10, 2011. After community feedback and further review, it was determined that maintenance costs and staffing would be too much of a drain on county finances. It was back to the drawing board and after much more deliberation, it was determined that a smaller pool and community center could be constructed for $9 million.
Months of weekly steering committee meetings followed with architects and ORB Management working to trim costs. For example, the upper level walking track was removed from the plan. Pool depth was reduced so a diving board was eliminated. The group struggled to keep in important features such as the zero entry pool, the hot tub and the waterslide.
There was also still a great deal of debate about the location of the new community center. In response to citizen concern about the expense of moving recently refurbished tennis courts, alternate locations were considered. In all, seven different layouts for the facility were studied.
In September 2012, the Community Center Steering Committee made the recommendation that the new pool and recreation complex be attached to the School District 166 building. After even more deliberation and many more meetings, ISD 166 agreed on September 25, 2012 to sell the west wing of the school to the county for $166,000 and a 99-year lease at $1 per year.
Cook County Community YMCA is born
Concurrently, discussions were under way with the Duluth area YMCA on how that nonprofit could work with Cook County. On October 9, 2012, an agreement between the county and the Duluth area YMCA was signed for the YMCA to manage the facility and provide programming.
After all these stops and starts and studies, the ground was broken on ISD 166 grounds on December 10, 2012 to officially begin construction of what was then being called the Cook County Family YMCA. Since then—after a bit more debate— stakeholders agreed to change the name to the Cook County Community YMCA.
YMCA Branch Director Emily Marshall was hired on May 13, 2013, coming to the facility with a strong YMCA background. Marshall had been employed as the aquatics director at the Duluth Y since 2002. She has served in numerous other roles for the YMCA, including member service desk attendant, lifeguard, swim instructor, camp counselor, Camp Miller program director, and family program specialist at the downtown Duluth facility.
The YMCA has two full-time employees and 20 part-time employees and 355 people have signed up for YMCA memberships. Marshall encourages everyone to stop by to see the progress on the building leading up to the grand opening celebration.
As the grand opening nears, Commissioner Sue Hakes, an impassioned advocate of the new community complex, sent an email to the Cook County News- Herald noting, “This is an amazing reflection on our community and community values, particularly in times when people believe that government at all levels cannot ever get business done or find compromise.”
Leave a Reply