NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Greater Wichita YMCA and Hutchinson Regional Healthcare System (HRHS) announced Tuesday a partnership that will bring a new state-of-the-art Hutchinson YMCA facility to Reno County.
"We see this as the future of of health and health care delivery," said HRHS CEO Benjamin Anderson. "It will begin with with community, it'll begin with connection, it'll begin with with opportunities to be active and and to learn and to grow and connect families and there's not a stronger organization in the state of Kansas that's doing that than the YMCA of Greater Wichita."
David Foster with the YMCA said construction will take some time.
"We're hoping to to break ground later this year," Foster said. "That may be a little bit as more of a ceremonial groundbreaking, but we're thinking once that happens probably 18 months plus just depending on you know, as long as it takes to get things now, it's a little bit longer of a process. We're hoping to to get that process started at least on the the front end of it later this year for sure."
Foster took a small group of stakeholders from the community down to Newton to take a look at their Y to get a vision for what the new building might have in store.
"That's about the same square footage we're looking at as the Newton Y," Foster said. "It's about 75,000 square feet for the main Y branch and some of the similar amenities, you know, the large fitness space and things of that nature. Each one of our Ys sort of has their own unique layout and some features that that we're looking forward to having here at the Hutchinson Y and obviously building on our strong history of of swimming and aquatics. We'll have a really nice you know more of an indoor water park type family pool with some warm water still for our exercise classes and things of that nature, but also a really nice lap pool for swim meets and things of that nature."
A decision has not been made yet on what will happen with the current YMCA building at 716 East 13th Ave.
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