Early Childhood and Recreation Center On Track Again

A proposed early childhood development and recreation center would be located near the Lacey Complex and Oskaloosa Elementary School.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The future of early childhood development and recreation has been working forward to plan its future after Mahaska County rural voters decided not to participate financially in the project.

The project scope is a 60,000 square foot facility that would include a gymnasium, wellness, aquatics, and childcare. The cost of the project is estimated to be $19.65 million dollars. Up to 3 million dollars for the project will need to be raised by other fundraising methods to meet that expected cost.

Grant opportunities are being explored, which include Enhance Iowa grants, which used to be known as CAT, RISE, and New Market Tax Credits.

The City of Oskaloosa and the Oskaloosa School District are working towards a cost sharing that will have amenities that will benefit both the school district and its students, as well as community members.

Oskaloosa voters decided they wanted to use sales tax dollars for the project.

The YMCA, Oskaloosa Schools, and the City of Oskaloosa understood that without the sales tax dollars from the unincorporated portion of the county, the scope of the project would change. The three parties decided to move forward, and look at what facility could be obtained with the funds available.

Triangle2 Solutions was hired in 2016 to perform a market analysis to further refine the facility design and what would be needed to operate the facility.

The current YMCA building was constructed in 1969 and has 42,000 square feet, which includes a weight room, cardio studio, gymnasiums, racquetball courts and a 4-lane 25-yard pool.

The YMCA also offers early childhood education for 320 children daily in two facilities, the former Webster School building, and the Kids Corner Child Care building. According to the YMCA, the early-childhood education program is operating with a waiting list due to facility constraints.

The land for the project is presumed to be donated to the city by the Daily Trust and located at the Lacey Recreation Complex, also adjacent to the Oskaloosa Elementary School.

Gro Development is a free architect service provided by the YMCA and helped to develop a conceptual layout or mapping of what the facility would be like. “Nothing of real detail. Nothing of the schematic detail,” said Michael Schrock, Oskaloosa City Manager and facilitator of the August 28th meeting.

Gro Development gives those free services as part of a YMCA membership to certain limits, and then the service does charge once a level is obtained.

As conceptual design wraps up, the process will move into schematic design. “In order for us to do that, we’re going to have to start spending money,” added Schrock.

An RFQ would be issued for architect services to do either the whole project or a phase of the project. Architectural fees can be 5 to 8 percent of the total cost of a project. “It’s a big contract for us to have and clearly we want to have our arrangement worked out,” said Schrock.

That arrangement would be between the City of Oskaloosa and the Oskaloosa School District. The school district can only pay for certain portions of the project by law, and those details are what needs to be clarified further.

The schematic design phase would be first, followed by the design development; eventually construction documents and bid letting along with the selection of a general contractor. Construction on the project would then begin.

Working out the 28E agreement between the entities is also up next, as the project continues to move forward. “We should try to get it right. We don’t want to rush that,” said Schrock of the 28E agreement. “We want to make sure we get it right, and everybody’s comfortable.”

Oskaloosa School Superintendent reiterated that the district wants to participate in the project, but they want to do it right.

Posted by on Aug 30 2017. Filed under Local News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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