Woodland Park City Manager David Buttery said today that the City would be holding off on construction of a long-awaited YMCA for the area, saying, "We wanted to ensure there would be enough revenue to pay for funding of a facility."

The construction was to be funded by City sales tax. The decision to delay an April groundbreaking for the facility was based on recent sales tax information, which included three months of data from the new Woodland Park Wal-Mart that opened on September 19.

"We're honoring our commitment to citizens to provide high quality services like snowplowing and those types of things," Buttery said.

Buttery said he had already met with the YMCA and that they are still a partner in this project, in which the City will pay for the construction of the facility and the YMCA will pay for all its operations thenceforth.

The city will continue to look at sales tax information on a month to month basis. However, delaying the planned April groundbreaking means the City will be fighting against a fairly small window for construction in the wintery mountain town. It may be next year before beginning construction is even feasible.

February 28, 2008
To: Mayor Crane and Council
Department Heads
From: David Buttery

For many years there has been a desire in the community to have a recreation center. Although the desire has been strong to have a facility that would include a swimming pool, basketball court, racquetball court, and exercise venues, the ability to build and then operate a facility has not existed. Several years ago the City entered into a conceptual agreement with the YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region to make the dream of a recreation center in our community a reality. Basically the agreement stipulated that the City would build the facility and that the YMCA would operate it. This was felt to be the perfect match! An estimated cost of the building was determined utilizing some historical construction rates for YMCAs. The City determined an expected sales tax revenue stream for the future, insuring that the facility would be funded without raising taxes. When it was believed that sales tax revenue was sufficient to finance the facility, the City then began working with the YMCA and a team of citizens to determine exactly what activities were priorities within the community and how those could best fit within an affordable facility. Through a competitive process an architect and general contractor were hired to help us get the highest quality facility for the best value.

City Council committed to our citizens that a contract to begin construction would not be signed until it was proven that the City could afford to finance the building of this facility without sacrificing the high standards of services that our citizens have come to expect and that they deserve. In the early part of the process, it was felt that sales tax revenues would be proven by the spring of 2008. For several reasons, including construction delays of a major sales tax generator, there isn't sufficient data to conclude that proven revenues exist. On the other side of the budget equation, preliminary construction estimates exceed those originally calculated, primarily because of the complexities of the construction site and because of increased construction costs. It would be irresponsible to move forward at this time with building the YMCA. The commitment to our citizens was not to jeopardize the financial stability of the City and we won't do that.

The YMCA is absolutely committed to this project and they will wait until we have the proven revenue stream. As excited as we all were about beginning construction this spring, it is heartening to know that the right decision is being made. The City Council remains committed to our citizens and will move forward with a contract to build the Woodland Park Family YMCA only when the financial data supports the project.