(West Roxbury YMCA)
A rendering of the planned project.
The state will allocate $500,000 to help pay for a multi-million-dollar project to overhaul and nearly double the size of the 62-year-old West Roxbury YMCA.
West Roxbury Democrats state Senator Mike Rush and state Representative Ed Coppinger will visit the YMCA of Greater Boston’s West Roxbury branch Monday afternoon to formally announce the state funding allocation, the organization said.
Rush and Coppinger, both former Y members, also plan to discuss the plans with current Y members, staff and executives, including branch director Marion Kelly and the Greater Boston Y president and CEO, Kevin Washington.
Officials have said previously they expect the two-phase project will cost about $13 million and will expand the facility from 23,000 square feet to 40,000 square feet.
Planned upgrades to the aging, cramped facility on Bellevue Street include: a state-of-the-art health and wellness center and gymnasium, a new aquatics center with two pools, expanded child care areas, a landscaped pavilion on Centre Street for public events, increased parking and full accessibility for people with disabilities.
The project will allow the branch to increase the number of programs for children, teens, adults and seniors and to increase its overall membership from about 7,000 to about 10,000, officials said.
The state funding will specifically go toward renovations to improve accessibility for people with disabilities and to create new programs, including for senior fitness for and stationary bike use for people with Parkinson’s disease, officials said.
The branch has been actively fund-raising in recent years to cover the project’s other costs.
Construction on the project is expected to start around the end of 2013, the Y said this week. Officials have said work will be done section by section so that the center will continue to operate throughout the project’s duration, which expected is to last about one-and-a-half-years.
For more details on the project, click here.
E-mail Matt Rocheleau at mjrochele@gmail.com.
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