AUBURN — Plans for a 93-acre YMCA outdoor recreation complex off Center Street, complete with hiking and biking trails and athletic fields, is moving forward with an initial blessing from the National Guard.
Steve Wallace, chief executive officer of the Auburn Lewiston YMCA, said the National Guard has accepted the YMCA’s proposed development at River and Stetson roads.
“As long as we can deliver on our end, which is planning and permitting, (Maine Department of Environmental Protection) letters and that sort of thing, then we’ll be good and they should start July 30,” Wallace said.
Wallace said he’s hoping to get city and environmental work permits by the end of April, and submit the complete project to the Maine National Guard for a final approval.
“At a minimum, they’ll be doing the parking lot,” Wallace said. “We’ve also got some bids in to make a 100- by 60-foot field and a paved pad for a pavilion, as well as some more finished trails.”
According to the deal with the National Guard, the YMCA would provide the materials to do the work. The National Guard would provide the tools and the manpower to operate it.
Wallace said the YMCA continues to look for funding to support the YMCA’s project costs. So far, they’ve received a $20,000 grant from the Betterment Fund, a central Maine-based philanthropic effort, $15,000 from the Davis Conservation Fund and $500 from the New England Mountain Bike Association.
The Stetson Road property includes 93 acres of trees and fields along Stetson and North River roads between the Androscoggin River and Route 4 in Auburn.
The YMCA purchased the Stetson Road property in 2011 with plans to move its entire operation there. They changed direction in February, opting to build an aquatics and fitness center with room for 5,000 members in Lewiston’s Bates Mill No. 5.
The plan still relocates the YMCA’s summer camp on the property. The local YMCA operates Camp Connor, a children’s summer camp on Range Pond in Poland. Current plans call for selling Camp Connor, relocating it to Auburn and expanding it. That could happen as soon as the summer of 2017, Wallace said.
The land was open this winter for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.
“We didn’t have much snow, but we have a 1.4-mile track out there,” Wallace said.
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