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Lehigh County News

Upper Saucon Twp. could be home to a new YMCA

PressReleasePicture - ConceptualRendering.jpg
Courtesy
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Greater Valley YMCA
Rendering of proposed Saucon Creek YMCA with a projected completion date of 2025

UPPER SAUCON TWP., Pa. - Upper Saucon Township may get a YMCA after seeking a new community center for years.

The new YMCA proposed at Upper Saucon Township Community Park on Preston Lane could provide much needed services and benefits, officials said at a community forum Tuesday at Southern Lehigh High School to gather input from residents.

Project organizers have a goal of raising $23 million from donations, fundraising and grants for the project, Greater Valley YMCA President David Fagerstrom said.

The project was approved by Upper Saucon Township in May 2021.

The meeting was part of a 6-month on-going effort to educate the public and gain public support, Fagerstrom said.

The new facility would sit at the site of an old public works location at the township's community park off Preston Lane and next to a library and across Preston Lane from recreational fields for lacrosse, soccer, baseball and basketball. It would also be near Southern Lehigh High and Middle schools.

Senior citizens have been looking for a place to commune and for a center for activities, Fagerstrom said, while parents are looking for half-day care centers. There now is only one in the area.

Meanwhile, Saucon Valley School District administrators and students at Southern Lehigh High School and Middle School are looking for a pool to use for swim practice.

Attendees of the area like Krista Berardelli said she's looking forward to a swimming pool.

"I grew up going to a Y and I learned so much from there like my childhood experiences—swimming especially. I mean it's crazy not to have this in the area," Berardelli said.

Beradelli is a marketing director at the Promenade shops in Upper Saucon Township and added that it would be huge amenity for the area for kids.

Rebecca Francis, a real estate agent in the area said she wished the Y had been in the area when she had younger children as it could have provided a place for summer camps and activities. Given the high population density of the Saucon Valley she said the Y would help provide residents and visitors with things to do in the area.

Attendees were also enthusiastic for a pickleball court.

The proposed site for the new YMCA was chosen from 18 locations, Fagerstrom said, because the area is most in need of it and because a community center has been sought by the surrounding community for about 20 years.

The Saucon Creek YMCA became a goal about 8 years ago.

The project still is years from being built. Plans indicate the opening is scheduled for 2025.

“COVID kind of knocked everything off its rails,” Fagerstrom said. “We just want to show the public that this is still going forward.”

Saucon Creek YMCA - PressReleasePicture - map location.jpg
Ccourtesy
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Greater Valley YMCA
Location for Saucon Creek YMCA on Preston Lane sitting next to Southern Lehigh Public Library and near lacrosse, soccer and baseball courts

The YMCA held informational events last week and will hold another community forum at Southern Lehigh High in January to seek public and community input and find volunteers and leadership that can help get the YMCA established.

The YMCA is looking into holding forums at schools in neighboring districts, Fagerstrom also said, including East Penn, that the Y could serve.

The center would hold an 8-lane indoor swimming pool, fitness center, community spaces, childcare facilities, group exercise classes, locker rooms and a gymnasium.

"The YMCA is interested in meeting wherever the local community is," Fagerstrom said. "If the school district does not have a pool for the kids, we would like to partner with the school district to offer that pool as opposed to use starting our own team and making the problem worse."

In the presentation, Fagerstrom said that after a survey taken from September 2021 to May 2022, in which the Greater Valley YMCA asked 30 community leaders about the image of the Y and tested the potential of this campaign, 86% believed the financial goal amount could be possible.

The Y also could serve not just as a community center but as an emergency center and a place that partners with other businesses and organizations such as Betty Lou’s Pantry, a nonprofit that distributes food to those in need, which currently operates out of a church in Coopersburg.

Chris Page, director of the Betty Lou Pantry attended the event and said that the Y location would help with logistics and operations.

Right now the pantry sits in a basement of a church, Page said, and it can be difficult to get food and goods out of the basement to patrons.

"We've been there since the mid-80s, and to get into something ground level is a lot easier for our patrons," Page said, "We have patrons who are seniors that just can't get up an down stairs."

Roughly 50 people attended and seemed rather pleased with the development and outlook of what's to come.

Fagerstrom said they will continue to see community input and that site plans haven't been delivered to an architect so there's still time to put in requests and find support for activities and amenities people are seeking.