- September 16, 2024
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The YMCA plans to open a new facility in Palm Coast and spend millions upgrading the Y in Ormond Beach.
The Volusia Flagler Family YMCA will use $1 million of a $5 million state grant to plan a new Flagler County facility, while another $3.5 million will support the Ormond Beach renovations.
Volusia Flagler Family YMCA CEO Chris Seilkop said the money will help pay for architects and site planning. The location of the future facility must be a good fit, he said.
“Building a facility in the wrong spot is not really a good idea,” Seilkop said. “So, site selection is going to be the first priority to make sure it's the best spot.”
Volusia Flagler Family YMCA is looking at areas in the southeast end of Palm Coast, Seilkop said.
Building a new, 25,000-square-foot Y could cost $6 million, Seilkop said. What goes into the facility depends on the community's needs, and he's heard that Flagler needs basketball gyms, after-school care, summer camp programs and aquatic space.
“One of the things that have been stressed to us by the city and by the community is the pool — a competition pool, to be specific,” he said.
Down the line, he said, Volusia Flagler YMCA hopes to add a second facility in northern Flagler County.
Flagler County's last YMCA rented space from Florida Hospital Flagler and closed in 2011.
The enthusiasm in the Flagler community for a YMCA is really energizing.”
— Chris Seilkop, Volusia Flagler Family YMCA CEO
“The enthusiasm in the Flagler community for a YMCA is really energizing,” Seilkop said. “Everyone I talk to, they say, ‘Oh, yeah, we want a Y up here so bad.’ … It's just really exciting.”
Palm Coast City Council member Nick Klufas is not a YMCA member — but only, he said, because there isn’t a location close enough.
“In order to become the Palm Coast that we want to become, we need a multi-generational sports facility like a YMCA," Klufas said.
Klufas said the county and city both need an indoor sports facility to free up space at existing facilities.
“There's so many programs that ... we just don't have the types of facilities to be able to satisfy everybody,” Klufas said.
There's so many programs that ... we just don't have the types of facilities to be able to satisfy everybody.”
— Nick Klufas, Palm Coast City Council member
The Ormond Beach Family YMCA is halfway through Phase 2 of a three-phase renovation process, Seilkop said.
The renovations — underway for about seven years so far — repurpose underused areas of the Y, such as the locker rooms.
“Back in the day, a lot of people would come to the Y and change at the Y to go to work,” Seilkop said. “Nowadays … there isn't as much locker room use now as it was, I'd say, 30 years ago.”
Instead, the Y has seen an increase in group exercises and people bringing their families, he said, so the Y is converting locker room space into more group exercise and kid-zone spaces in Phases 2 and 3.
Seilkop said he hopes grant will carry through Phase 3.
The remaining $500,000 in state grant money would fund projects at the Deltona, DeLand and Camp Winona YMCAs.
Rep. Chase Tramont and Sen. Tom Wright sponsored the project in the Florida House of Representatives and the Senate, respectively. Rep. Thomas Leek, who sits on the state appropriations committee, championed the project through the committee.
Tramont wrote in a text message to the Observer that getting projects like the Y funding into the budget is a team effort. He said he's supported the local Y for decades and is proud to have sponsored the grant funding in the House.
“It is always important to support local organizations like the YMCA that invest in the community without any strings attached,” Tramont wrote. “They provide a tremendous benefit to local residents of all ages and abilities.”
Seilkop said the Volusia Flagler Family YMCA got the grant because Tramont, Wright and Leek believe in the YMCA's impact on the community.
“So, kudos to our state representatives for recognizing that and in saying yeah, you know, this is important, to build a strong community — to have a strong, strong Y.”
