YMCA to Stafford: Is it a fit?
If you were looking for answers at the YMCA Of Greater Hartford Community Meeting, you may have been disappointed—it turned out to be a night designed around asking questions of the community. Near the end of the meeting, Mike Tedesco, Chief Commercial Officer, said, “This is step one. I don’t know how many more steps there will be.” If the YMCA was to come to town, it would be a long journey. Still, it was clear the community seemed to think there was plenty of need and the YMCA might be able to fill it.
To recap: The Town issued a request for proposals (RFP) back in the spring. The YMCA of Greater Hartford and The Michaels Organization responded. Wednesday was the first of two community presentations. Though there was a sizable crowd, it skewed older, despite there being childcare available on site.
Tedesco asked the audience to split up into groups and identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (aka a SWOT analysis). Then they asked people to go around and place stickers near any statements they agree with. This provided a visual representation of the Stafford community’s wants, needs, and concerns.
A few familiar themes emerged. People want many different kinds of programs for kids, a pool, a makerspace, and adult programming. They are worried about preserving the park and its history.
Next, the YMCA team will take the data they collected back to digest and decide if there is, indeed, a need their organization can fill. And while there were no concrete answers about what, if anything, the team envisions at Witt School, Tedesco said, “I could do a lot there.”
The complicated history of Witt School makes reinventing the building tricky, but not impossible. And as Roger Ingraham noted, Isaac Perkins Hyde’s bequest to the Town requires a park to be maintained in perpetuity. He noted that putting a YMCA in the park would be more in line with that vision than an apartment building would be. (That option is being discussed on October 28.)
Selectman Tim Cromwell closed out the meeting, noting he thought a YMCA would be as popular as Ice Cream Depot on a hot August day.
