Numerous pieces of the puzzle would have to be fit into place, but if YMCA board members agree that the resultant picture would be worth pursuing, the project could ultimately benefit the entire community, Mayor Mack McGehee told the board in a meeting Thursday night.

The idea that he said has been gestating for about five years involves the YMCA, the vacant old National Guard Armory on Avenue B and LSU Bogalusa Medical Center, a hospital now expanding in services and space via multi-million dollar projects, which is land-locked adjacent to YMCA property.

McGehee said having such a medical facility in a city with a population of only 13,000 is a rare and enormous benefit to the community and that its success must be protected. If it cannot grow, the state might focus its resources on another hospital, he said.

The Avenue B branch of the Bogalusa YMCA, at right, is located in an old building next to the land-locked LSU Bogalusa Medical Center, left rear. The YMCA owns the property and the hospital could use it to continue its ongoing expansion. Advertisement

Meanwhile, the YMCA has two aging branches dating from the days of segregation and has been working for years, generally unsuccessfully, to find funding to bring the two together in a single new facility.

McGehee said his plan is “basically a swap” that would help the YMCA, the hospital and the city as a whole.

The city and state representatives are already in the process of getting Georgia Pacific to donate the old armory property to the city. If they succeed, the city could then lease the property to the YMCA for “$1 a year for 100 years,” said McGehee.

The YMCA could, in turn, sell its Avenue B property (the Avenue U property does not belong to the Y) to the hospital for expansion. The state should pay appraised value, estimated at about $500,000, which the YMCA could bank and use for renovation of the armory building or as a match for grant funding, he said.

State Rep. Harold Ritchie agreed that the availability of match funding would be beneficial, but said in the current economic climate he could not promise state funding for the YMCA renovation of the armory. Sen. Ben Nevers, who was out of town, reportedly also supports the project and is working to help secure the donation of the armory property.

YMCA board members said before they had plans drawn for a completely new building, estimated to cost around $7 million, the old armory, which is about a block north and across the street from the Avenue B YMCA, was their first choice for a joint new facility. They even toured the building and planned how it could be transformed for their purpose. But at that time, Temple Inland thought it owned the property and wanted to keep it as a “buffer zone” for the chemical plant. 

Now not only is the chemical plant due to be shut down this year, it’s been determined that Georgia Pacific actually owns the property.

Every YMCA board member who spoke in response to McGehee’s proposal expressed support of the hospital and its continued growth. Some also pointed out that the preventative health care and rehabilitative opportunities that the YMCA already offers and could better offer in a new facility would go hand-in-hand with the hospital’s health services and mission.

A partnership between the two and the city makes sense, they said.

But the YMCA will not be in a position to enter into such a partnership if it finds itself in an empty building with insufficient funding to remodel it into a viable center for health, fitness and other community programming, warned Chief Volunteer Officer Stuart Parker.

If that happened, the community might keep a facility designed to address health problems, but lose one created, in part, to decrease the problems that are preventable.

Funding is the bottom line, and while an expanding hospital could bring in additional YMCA supporters which could then help pay for programs and operations in the long run, the basics must be in place from the start, continued Chief Executive Officer Kenny Martin.

The YMCA currently offers low- and even no-cost health, fitness, tutoring, art and other opportunities. The board said that significant value to the community must also be considered and preserved.

Members said they appreciate the economic impact of the hospital and would like to have a role in giving that to the community while also providing the other half of the health equation.

They are pleased McGehee’s idea reinforces their own original plan. Now they are working to determine if the idea is feasible. If it seems so, they will meet with city and hospital representatives as soon as possible to discuss the matter and a potential partnership, they said.

Board members said they hope the puzzle can come together. McGehee said he feels it is possible.

“With everybody working for the same goal, we can make anything happen,” he said. “I think this is something we could all be proud of if we can make it work out, and I don’t see why we couldn’t.”