New YMCA to open Wednesday

After more than a year of construction, the YMCA is planning to open its new northwest location in Monroe County on Wednesday.

An open house took place Sunday for the public to tour the new facility and enroll for membership.

“We’ve been doing evaluations and assessments over the past 15 years,” said Sara Herold, marketing director for the Monroe County YMCA. “There really isn’t a community facility that reaches this side of the community, so we knew there was a need for licensed childcare and also a need for a pool.”

The northwest location plans to have a full-size Olympic outdoor soccer field by spring 2014.

The new facility offers a licensed childcare center, an indoor multifunctional pool, a wellness center with cardio and strength training machines, an indoor track that circles the wellness center, a child watch service, a full-size Olympic gymnasium with basketball courts, a teaching kitchen, IU Health orthopedics and sports medicine, as well as doctors for rehabilitation.

“Placing medical providers of orthopedics, sports medicine and rehab within YMCA is a mutually beneficial and cutting-edge concept,” said Timothy Steiner, medical director of orthopedics and sports medicine for IU Health Bloomington Hospital.

The partnership with IU Health Bloomington Hospital will allow YMCA members to be able to rehab with a physical therapist in their own gym where they can continue to follow what they have learned after their recovery, knowing their therapist is right around the corner, Steiner said.

Steiner said YMCA members who have been injured will have care provided for them in a familiar place where they are comfortable.

Those who are not YMCA members will be exposed to the new facility they wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

“We are really trying to reach out,” Herold said.

The IU Health orthopedics and sports medicine is expected to open by
mid-December.

Before YMCA opened its doors, it had 400 memberships, and the goal is to have 2,200 members by April, Herold said.

John Mosby said he is considering a membership at YMCA because it’s close to home.

Mosby said he tried to go to the southeast location, but it was not feasible to commute from Ellettsville.

“Commuting and working out where I work at wasn’t worth the time or the money to get there,” Mosby said. “They build this facility over here, and I wanted to see what it was like and see if there is some stuff my family could use.”

Follow reporter Alli Friedman on Twitter @afreedz.