Dover-Foxcroft will support group looking to reopen PRYMCA facility

DOVER-FOXCROFT — For a number of years the Dover-Foxcroft municipal budget has included funding for the Piscataquis Regional YMCA. In 2024-25 the total is again $35,000, distributed monthly and not earmarked for any specific purpose at the facility at 48 Park Street.

Earlier this month the board of directors announced that operations at the PRYMCA would be closing no later than Friday, Nov. 1 with financial reasons being cited for the facility closure. The PRYMCA has been in operation since 1988.

Soon after news broke a local group has begun organizing in Piscataquis County with the intention of reopening the building as a community center. During an Oct. 15 meeting of the Dover-Foxcroft Select Board the town officials passed a motion saying the nine months of remaining monies, about $24,000, earmarked for the PRYMCA would instead go to the new group.

“We’ve had a group of old board members get together and they are looking to establish a special acquisition group to reestablish a board and regain control of the endowment and regain control of the building of the Piscataquis Regional YMCA,” said PRYMCA Branch Manager Manda Stewart.

In July 2022 the board of directors of the Dover-Foxcroft-based organization and the Old Town Orono YMCA formally voted to integrate as one organization. For almost two years prior the Old Town Orono YMCA had been providing leadership to the PRYMCA through a temporary management agreement. In the 2-plus years since then the PRYMCA operated as a branch of the Old Town Orono YMCA.

Stewart said that morning members of the local group met with the Piscataquis County Commissioners and the commissioners were willing to contribute county funds toward the reopening — the amount is to be determined after a thorough examination of finances. A contribution could go toward the pool and its at least $50,000 annual expense.

“That’s usually the biggest drain on the organization,” she said, with budgets being considered and components of a new organization — which would not be under the YMCA banner — coming together 

“We are feeling hopeful and optimistic thinking about the changes that are coming, it’s looking like a really positive thing,” Stewart said. “A temporary shutdown is probably going to be inevitable but I’m feeling like things are going in the right direction and we will be able to reopen at that facility. It will not be a YMCA again, it will be a community center of some sort; the pool really being a wildcard there and if we can get the funding to get the pool back up and running. I personally am a huge advocate for the pool so I am pushing for that, we are the only pool in Piscataquis County.” 

She said she is working with other area groups to find temporary solutions to continue exercise programs. “We are trying to find creative ways to keep everybody moving while we are in this horrible transition,” the branch director said.

The local group is seeking to gain back control of the PRYMCA Facebook page is looking to have an email blast list with updates (signups can be made with manda.stewart48@gmail.com). Stewart said full transparency is a goal as the group plans to have a new governance board when the community center is up and running.

She was asked about a timeline. 

“It’s very much up in the air right now, a lot of it unfortunately is in  the Old Town board of directors’ hands at the moment, ” Stewart said. She said a few of old PRYMCA board members met with Old Town Orono YMCA officials and everyone seems on the right page but they will have to wait before the matter comes before the full Old Town board to see if these directors are being honest and truthful.

Previously Old Town Orono YMCA officials have said they are willing to work with anyone with a business plan to take over the Dover-Foxcroft facility.

“From everything I’ve been told we’re looking at a 2- to 3-week shutdown if everything goes as well as it can,” Stewart said. She said in the meantime insurances and licenses are being reestablished and non-profit status is being sought.

Local attorney Ben Cabot is setting up an escrow account for donations “We will have a place for people to make donations and to start helping as we move forward,” Stewart said.

Select Vice Chair Cindy Freeman Cyr asked what the board could do to help.

“As a town I really think about financial funding,” Stewart said. She said she has some “really awesome fundraising ideas” she hopes to implement quickly and there are a lot of people rallying to support.

“The biggest thing I am looking for right is people, if they can do monetary donations and they have the ability to do that, for a kind of nest egg as we are going to have operating expenses right up front, moving in, getting our staff,” the branch director said.

Stewart said a public meeting will be held as soon as they know more. She said volunteers will be needed, including those with skills such as carpentry, electrical, and plumbing.

When asked who owns the building Stewart responded, “The mortgage and the deed are both in the name of the Piscataquis Regional YMCA.” The Old Town Orono YMCA controls the name and the local group is working to gain control of an approximate $668,000 endowment with the Maine Community Foundation. 

She was asked if staff knew a closure was coming.

“Not at all,” Steward said. She said the Friday of the month Old Town Orono YMCA directors come in at 11 a,m. with  only her and a Welcome Center employee there. Stewart took the visiting directors back and asked if she could get them anything, at which point she was told the PRYMCA would be closed for the day, the pool would cease operating immediately, and everything would be shuttered at the end of the month.

The plan is for equipment to remain in Dover-Foxcroft, Stewart said to another question.

“The appropriation that we’ve had over the years is basically general support, it’s not restricted to any particular activity or program, or it’s not even restricted to support of the pool,” Town Manager Jack Clukey said as the board began to discuss switching where the remaining PRYMCA monies would go.

“Going forward the board could allow that money to be unrestricted to be used by the new entity or it could be dedicated to say the pool,” he said.

Select Chair Tom Lizotte said at a future meeting he would like to hear from the new entity to see what they feel would be the biggest need going forward.

When asked, Clukey said a separate $24,000 allocation is for the Foxcroft Youth Sports program, which has a narrower focus on more competitive offerings for grades 3-6 compared to PRYMCA youth programming.

“We don’t have a rec department so we rely on these community partners to provide recreation programming,” Freeman Cyr said. She also said that with these partnerships, the town does not have a $75,000 expense for a rec director.

“We are very fortunate in Dover-Foxcroft to have Foxcroft Academy and to have the Y and not needed to run a recreation department,” she said.

Selectperson Jane Conroy asked her fellow board members to think about other facilities in town, such as the Jim Robinson Field House and Piscataquis County Ice Arena, and to what can be done to make sure these assets do not suddenly close.

“The money’s already there so it would be very easy for us to shift this from one entity to the other,” Lizotte said. 

He said the town could operate the facility but “I would much rather see a community group that really is invested in the Y run the YMCA and our job is to support it the best we can.”