YMCA Of Muncie To Build Facility At Muncie Central High School

The YMCA of Muncie has announced it will build a new downtown facility.  But it won’t be based at Muncie’s Tuhey Park.  As IPR’s Stephanie Wiechmann reports, after community members came out largely against a proposal supported by Muncie’s mayor, the YMCA will stay downtown and partner with Muncie Community Schools.

The YMCA’s board has approved building a new facility at Muncie Central High School.   The YMCA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.  But in a statement,  organization president Chad Zaucha says the Y and the school will be able to share services.

The announcement didn’t say where on the high school campus the new building will be placed.  The new location does allow the organization to stay in downtown Muncie, which was a goal for moving out of its current location on Mulberry Street.

And it protects the land at Tuhey Park, which was the first publicly announced location the Y was considering.  Residents and neighborhood associations overwhelmingly opposed that move at community meetings on the issue.

Read More: Muncie Largely Opposes YMCA Tuhey Park Plan At Community Meeting

Beth Messner with the Riverside-Normal City Neighborhood Association spoke against the plan at a community meeting in December.

“For the residents of Muncie, who will be required to pay a fee for use of public land that should be available to them without fee, given that it’s supported by their hard-earned tax dollars.”

Read More: Muncie Mayor: YMCA Move To Tuhey Park Is Not Happening

Muncie Map Co.’s Andy Shears proposed alternate locations to the YMCA. The MCHS campus was among them. (Graphic: Andy Shears / Friends of Tuhey on Facebook)

The YMCA has never released all the potential sites it was considering for its new location.  Local mapmaker and Muncie Map Co. owner Andy Shears proposed six alternate sites to Tuhey Park.  The Muncie Central High School location near the Fieldhouse was among them.

The YMCA doesn’t yet have a building design.  And it says it will launch a capital campaign to pay for the new facility.  As its press release says, “The construction timeline will ultimately depend on the generosity of the community.”