City Hopeful YMCA Agreement Will Secure Grant

    Some T’s still need to be crossed and some I’s dotted, but Glenwood City Administrator Brian Kissel said the YMCA of Greater Omaha intends to sign a contractual agreement with the city to manage the Charles E. Lakin Aquatic Center.
    

The proposed $4.7 million aquatic center would be built on property adjacent to Glenwood Community High School.

Most of the funding for the project would come from Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) revenue, but $850,000 in private funding and donations is being sought to pay for the Lazy River portion of the project. Kissel said Monday he’s optimistic the city will be awarded a Vision Iowa grant to cover $289,000 of private funding still needed for the Lazy River, but the award won’t happen until Vision Iowa board members have seen the city’s operations and management agreement with the YMCA. The city is actually requesting $350,000 from Vision Iowa and also has an application in with the Peter Kiewit Foundation for a $348,00 grant.

“I met with Vision Iowa (last week) and the issue is they want to have every and all contracts approved before they award us money,” Kissel said.

Kissell said city attorney Matt Woods sent proposed contracts to the YMCA two weeks ago to be signed, but the YMCA’s “decision makers” were all out of town.

“They have to go through about eight different people at the YMCA before it gets approved,” he said.

The YMCA and Glenwood City Council did sign a letter of intent indicating both sides’ understanding that the YMCA would manage the aquatic center and Kissell presented the letter to the Vision Iowa board at its March 11 meeting.

“Vision Iowa basically said, ‘While we appreciate the letter of intent, this is not a full contract. Even though it’s binding, we want all details laid out in the contract,’” Kissel said.

Kissel said he met with YMCA officials, Glenwood Aquatic Center Committee members, engineering consultants and representatives from the Glenwood Community School District on Friday to discuss the contracts.

“We sat down and ironed out the majority of the questions and concerns with the contract,” Kissel said. “I think they’re very minor, so Matt Woods is going to make corrections to the contract and send them back to the YMCA. Hopefully, we can have it signed so I can have it approved on March 24 (by city council).”

Kissel said it’s critical the contracts be signed by both the city and the YMCA before Vision Iowa meets in April. If Vision Iowa funding isn’t awarded in April, construction could be delayed. The city’s timeline calls for bids to be let in April with construction commencing in May. The city hopes to have the facility open in time for the 2016 summer swimming season.

In addition to meeting with Vision Iowa on a regular basis, Kissel said he’s also been updating the Peter Kiewit Foundation on fundraising progress.

“What we’re hoping is that we get the full amount from Vision Iowa and we don’t even need Peter Kiewit,” Kissel said. “If we don’t get the full amount from Vision Iowa, I’ll have to give an update to Peter Kiewit and say, ‘Hey, you guys are our last grant and this is what we’re short.’”