Prairie Village residents will soon have a chance to weigh in on the prospect of building a new community center with the YMCA of Greater Kansas City.
The upshot: A new survey intends to gauge resident support for a new community center at 79th and Delmar streets that would be managed by the Y.
- It’s part of a decades-long push to revamp the city’s municipal campus off Mission Road and replace the aging Paul Henson YMCA in the process.
What’s new: The city council on Monday voted 7-5 to move forward with a memorandum of understanding with the YMCA, outlining a new community survey, which is expected to cost $34,000 to conduct.
- The Y would pay about a third of that cost, and the city’s final portion is set to be about $20,000.
Discussion: The city council on Dec. 19 agreed to enter a memorandum of understanding — with a revised survey — to be conducted in partnership the YMCA.
- This came after more than an hour-long discussion about councilmember concerns with the intertwining of the community center and YMCA.
- Several councilmembers shared concerns that residents may be less inclined to support a YMCA-managed community center, alluding to the deterioration of the Paul Henson location.
- The city council agreed to add two questions at the end of the survey asking what people’s impressions of the YMCA are and if the connection to the YMCA adversely or positively impacts their support for a community center.
Key quote: “Like it or not, the YMCA has been part of this community for decades — whether or not the YMCA has a relationship with the city and a new community center going forward is still to be determined,” Councilmember Dave Robinson, an ad hoc civic center committee member, said. “They have an interest, we have an interest, but we have to take this step in order to get clarity on whether or not we’re going to move forward with anything else.”
Watch for yourself: The entire city council meeting can be viewed in the embedded link below.
Next steps: The YMCA board of directors needs to review the MOU and survey changes — and whether they are in agreement will be unclear until at least Jan. 1, City Administrator Wes Jordan told the Post.
- If all is approved, then residents could expect the survey — both a phone call and a postcard — to happen in February at the earliest, Jordan said.
- Between the phone and online formats, about 1,000 people will be surveyed.
- The 400 phone surveys will include Prairie Village residents and people from neighboring cities on both sides of the state line.
Go deeper: Read about the community center idea more here.
