JOSH DAVIS/BAYSIDE GAZETTE
Berlin Falls Park Committee members last Thursday discuss a proposed YMCA feasibility study. The committee recommended the study in November, but some members said they still wanted more information on what it would entail.

By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(Jan. 24, 2019) While the Berlin Town Council last week said it needed more information before it decides whether to authorize a $20,000 YMCA feasibility study, the Berlin Falls Park Committee, which endorsed the study in November, also said its members had lingering questions.

For one, committee Vice Chairman Jack Orris said last Thursday that he is interested in a more generic study being done.

Berlin Falls Park Coordinator David Deutsch said the subject also came up during a conversation that morning with YMCA of the Chesapeake CEO Robbie Gill.

“One of the interesting points he made toward the end of the conversation [was] the study doesn’t even have to mention the Y,” Deutsch said. “It’s a study of needs of these types of activities and thresholds of willingness to pay and those types of things – where the participants might come from and the distance they’re willing to travel.”

Orris, who said in an interview last week he is interested in the town exploring other options, seemed intrigued.

“They’re OK if we do a study … that doesn’t specifically say it’s a Y?” he asked.

“That’s what Mr. Gill said this morning. I thought it was so important that I actually kind of perked up from where I was [sitting] in the conference call,” Deutsch said. “I thought that was interesting.”

“And helpful, because I think it gets at your interest in something a little more general,” Town Administrator Laura Allen added.

Deutsch said he and Allen would contact Triangle2, the firm YMCA uses for feasibility studies, “so we could query them about modifications to their standard approach.”

Allen said another thing that came up when talking to Gill was whether more preliminary work would be needed before a study. Specifically, she mentioned, “Community meetings or more outreach that maybe we should be doing on our own to get a stronger sense of what we’re looking for before we engage the consultants.”

“David and I can do a little follow-up with [Triangle2] just to sort of see what that would look like and how much that would cost,” Allen said.

Some committee members said they were surprised by what the study would not include. Chairwoman Amy Field said when she voted to recommend the study, she assumed it also included a fundraising component.

During the Town Council meeting last week, Allen said YMCA requires a separate fundraising study, which would cost an additional $20,000.

Orris and Town Councilman Zack Tyndall said they were also surprised.

“I realize that $20,000 and a possible other $20,000 is a lot of taxpayer money,” Field said. “I get that the mayor and council wanted some more information.”

Other committee members said they want a breakdown of what would be included in either study.

“We need to get those answers,” Field said.

Tyndall brought up the proposed community center on Flower Street, which Berlin Community Improvement Association Chairman D.J. Lockwood spoke about during the same Town Council meeting last week.

“One thing that didn’t hit me was thinking about this maybe in two different ways … the recreational side of the coin being at Berlin Falls Park, and that if things work out [on Flower Street], maybe the services aspect are over in the community where they actually need to be,” Tyndall said. “We need to be open to looking at this as a couple different pieces.”

Committee member Kate Patton agreed.

“If there are concerns that we’re doing something over here without taking in the whole community’s needs … then we really want to make to sure there’s some transparency there and that there isn’t competing interests,” she said.

Field ended the discussion by saying Deutsch had his work cut out for him in gathering answers to all of the committee and Town Council concerns.

“The idea that we don’t necessarily in the feasibility study have to say ‘YMCA’ … that makes me feel a little bit better … and makes everybody more comfortable,” Field said. “We will return to this topic, but I think it makes sense to return to the topic when we have these answers.”

She added, “That study is really going to influence me. I’m on the fence about [whether a YMCA is a good idea] myself.”