Maquoketa YMCA still partnering with community after 10 years

MAQUOKETA, Iowa — When construction started on a new rec center in Maquoketa in August of 2006, then-City Manager Brian Wagner said the fundraising took “a lot of twists and turns.”

This month marks the 10-year anniversary of what eventually became the Maquoketa Area Family YMCA. Wagner, now city manager in Tipton, said the time and effort to get it built was worth it.

“I would think it was around 1999 when we first started talking about building a rec center,” he said. “They had two old outdoor pools at the time. One was in the process of being demolished and the other was high-maintenance.”

After a community survey revealed the desire for a rec center with an indoor pool, private funding started being raised. But donations dried up after a few years, according to Wagner.

Then, in 2005, the possibility of the YMCA running the facility and taking over the city’s recreation program was raised.

“After it was brought up that the Y could do a management agreement with the city to run the rec program, donations picked up enough to get the thing built,” Wagner said.

The $5.4 million facility now boasts a six-lane indoor pool, a gymnasium, a wellness center, multiple smaller meeting rooms and a child care center at which adults can drop off young children while they work out. (full article)

BY MATTHEW REZAB Dubuque Telegraph Herald, October 7, 2017

This copyrighted material is posted with permission of TH Media