Officials with the Jefferson City Area YMCA hope to move forward with plans for a new $3 million addition to the West YMCA within the next few months.
"We hope to select a contractor by the end of April and break ground in late May or early June," said Craig Lammers, chief executive officer of the Jefferson City Area YMCA.
The project will be a two-level, 23,000-square-foot addition to the West YMCA's current facility on Amazonas Drive.
Lammers said the lower level will be a men's and women's locker room, and the upper level a multipurpose room and additional office space.
"We'll be converting the current locker rooms (on the upper level) to a children's development center," Lammers said.
The estimated timeline for completion of the project is 10 months. It's the second of four phases of additions included in a 15-year plan for the west facility.
Lammers said any of the planned phases are subject to change.
"There have been discussions around a family aquatics facility, as well as a basketball gym and track," he said.
He said no major additions are currently planned for the organization's other two facilities in Jefferson City - just equipment updates and other smaller, miscellaneous capital projects.
He said one future project for the Jefferson City Area YMCA is a nine-month management agreement between it and the YMCA of Callaway County that began March 24.
"It's an assessment period to evaluate each other to provide better efficiencies for both organizations and the communities," he said. "This step is a partnership with the option that it could be evolved into a community partnership and merger."
A news release from both YMCAs last week said the management agreement could help the two organizations decide whether to proceed with rebranding their respective YMCAs into a new Mid-Missouri YMCA.
"We really want to see the best practices to evaluate on both sides and see if a merger makes sense," Lammers said.
The two organizations have been discussing the partnership since August 2013.