About 75 Holts Summit residents gathered Monday night at the Civic Center to hear plans for a new $475,000 YMCA facility in their town.
The public forum was conducted by the Holts Summit Board of Aldermen with Patty Miller, executive director of the YMCA of Callaway County, answering questions from those attending.
Many residents sought clarification on how the plan for the city to lease recreation programs to the YMCA would operate.
Miller described the proposed arrangement between the city and the YMCA.
She said a new 6,000-square-foot exercise and sports services center building would be constructed in Greenway Park next to the Holts Summit Civic Center. The YMCA also would pay to renovate the current Civic Center building, including new restrooms, flooring and windows.
The YMCA intends to spend about $475,000 on the new Greenway Park building complex.
Miller said the YMCA plans to construct a building with an indoor track and fitness center, and will operate recreational activities for the city from the new building. The attached and renovated civic center would continue to serve as a public meeting place for residents of Holts Summit.
The city would lease park recreation program functions to the YMCA for $1 a year for a 30-year period. Current free public use of the parks would continue, but the YMCA could lease the pavilion and civic center for private functions at nominal fees.
Mayor Lucus Fitzpatrick said he was pleased at the large turnout at the meeting. He assured residents at the meeting that the city would never sell any of the park land and that free public use of the parks would continue.