St. Mary’s County commissioners agreed unanimously Tuesday to move forward with the architecture and engineering phase of building a YMCA in Lexington Park, after hearing the results of a fundraising study that determined how the $15 million needed for a community center would be raised.
A research firm conducted 29 interviews with community leaders and determined a fundraising campaign could raise from $1.5 million to $2.8 million for the YMCA, a long-sought anchor for the Lexington Park community that has been in the works for years. The report also concluded that on top of a regular “brick and mortar” fundraising campaign, the county’s YMCA project should seek endowments.
The county will have to fund most of the estimated $15 million YMCA project, and the total amount needed from fundraising won’t be decided until the commissioners make a financial commitment from the county’s coffers, said Kim Looby of Triangle2, the research and planning consultant contracted by the county for the project. In the meantime, commissioners were advised to quietly meet with the top five potential largest donors and secure funding from them, and start figuring out other partnerships with community members as well as funding from state and other officials.
“This can’t be accomplished without the county commissioners’ commitment … that’s really what’s going to drive all the next steps, that would be a natural progression for this campaign,” Looby said.
The fundraising campaign will mostly focus on relationships with the largest potential donors, as most campaigns rely on major gifts.
“Statistically, if you look at a capital campaign in any scenario, 90% of the funds come from 10% of the donors,” Robbie Gill, the YMCA of the Chesapeake’s CEO, said. “You can’t stand outside of Acme and get this done. You’re going to have to ask people to write $250,000 checks for the next five years.”
Commissioners voted to move forward with the architecture and engineering stage, which will also require a decision to be made on which of the two potential YMCA sites — Nicolet Park and near Great Mills Swimming Pool — will be used.
“Both those sites can work. Both need vetting and process to get to a place where you can say, ‘O.K., here are the hurdles to clear at Nicolet Park, here are the hurdles to clear at Great Mills,’” Gill said. “Of the two, there wasn’t anyone who was exponentially one or the other,” but if the underserved population of Lexington Park had a voice, “Nicolet Point would be the easier access point.”
The YMCA will come back with recommendations during the architecture and engineering phase.
“I like Great Mills,” Commissioner Eric Colvin (R) said of the area near the public swimming pool and Great Mills High School.
“I do, too” Commissioner President Randy Guy (R) said.
“I like Nicolet Park, because we can take Great Mills pool, turn it into a seasonal pool, get rid of that $250,000 a year we’re losing trying to heat that pool,” Commissioner Mike Hewitt (R) said.
“I like whatever you bring back and recommend,” Commissioner John O’Connor (R) said.
The community center will still be a long haul trip, with many hurdles to come, Gill said.
“Even if you wrote a check today, you’re still two years out,” he said.
“This approval starts the process … but the process doesn’t happen overnight once it’s in your hands,” O’Connor said.
Hewitt said the timing was right for the project to move forward, with money from the Defense Critical Infrastructure Program — federal money focusing on infrastructure near military installations like Naval Air Station Patuxent River — possibly becoming available for the project.
“The timing, I believe, is critically important right now because we have the ability maybe to qualify for DCIP money. We’ve seen it done in New York and other places,” Hewitt said.
