CLAIMS MADE FOR THE ORTON JUNCTION DEVELOPMENT

CLAIMS MADE FOR THE ORTON JUNCTION DEVELOPMENT: CHALLENGED
by MAXINE HERBERT-HILL

CLAIM 2. To provide a “community center” through a YMCA that will serve our youth.

This YMCA is supposed to be the answer to idle teens with a positive place to go after school and to engage in activities that the school doesn’t offer or in sports that some kids don’t qualify for in the school athletic program. The problem is that it is nowhere near the school and not very accessible when you have to cross SR410 at only two possible bottlenecks. It will not be very attractive to anyone and definitely not the golden answer to idle teens.

Have you priced the membership to a Y lately? I am sure most of the population of Sumner won’t be able or won’t want to afford it. The “free” teen program will be hard to sustain if they don’t have their projected premium high paying membership and most folks on lesser programs. They will have to have a bulk of their membership from outside Sumner to meet the 20,000 goal. Those folks won’t want to come to quaint little Sumner once they have to wrestle with the traffic in these two bottlenecks.

How can the YMCA be a good neighbor when it is not even in the neighborhood? Why can't the YMCA be built on the north side of SR410? It could be built in at least one other location within the current city limits. But the Y will not adjust their building design to fit an alternate location. I expect that is mostly because it strengthens their leverage for Orton Junction and the free land that Investco is offering them. On the one hand they naturally would do that. On the other, they could offer to create an alternate design if Sumner would be willing to work with them on the cost and location of property in the City, and I suspect they would find a way to meet the Y’s requirements.

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