Construction Begins on Haverford Area YMCA

Ground was broken for the new $22.5 million Haverford Area YMCA on Tuesday morning, drawing about 150 people to the site at 891 N. Eagle Road in Havertown for a ceremony which included speeches and student musical performances.

When the new Y opens in September 2013, Haverford Township will have a “state of the art facility” which will serve about 20,000 Y members and have a payroll of about $4 million annually, John F. Flynn, president and CEO of the YMCA of Philadelphia & Vicinity, said during his remarks at the groundbreaking ceremony.

Monique Shallow, a Havertown mother of three children who attended Tuesday's event with her youngest child, said her family plans to join the Y when it opens.

“We can’t wait until this place is up and running because we will be fully participating in everything they offer,” Shallow said. “We’re very excited.  We can walk here.”

Flynn said $22.5 million will be expended to build the facility. The Haverford Area Y will also create 150 new jobs, said a spokeswoman for the YMCA of Philadelphia & Vicinity.

“This YMCA came together the best and the fastest of any of the Ys I’ve been involved with,” Flynn said.  He attributed the speed to the fact that “it was in everybody’s heart” to make the project happen.

Ninth Ward Commissioner Bill Wechsler said “a lot of things were overcome” to start construction on the site and the township welcomed the YMCA.

The site where the Y is being constructed is where the .

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designated the Swell Bubble
Gum campus a Superfund site because of the pentachlorophenol (PCP) that has
been found at the location.

Ron Borsellino, director of Hazardous Site Cleanup Division for EPA Region 3, said the EPA has been working with the township to make sure that the YMCA can be built safely. 

The EPA utilized $3 million to clean up the PCP site, which allowed the YMCA construction to move forward, Borsellino said. Borsellino said the YMCA will bring not only recreational opportunities but jobs to the township.

One of the lead corporate sponsors for the Y is Independence Blue Cross, said CBS3 reporter Jessica Boyington, the emcee for the event, before she introduced Christopher Cashman, executive vice president and president of commercial markets for Independence Blue Cross.

Cashman said the board for Independence Blue Cross has authorized the company to invest $1.5 million to the the Healthy Living Pillar programs offered by the YMCA of Philadelphia & Vicinity, including healthy living programs which will be offered at the Haverford Area YMCA.

(Editor's note: It was originally reported that the $1.5 million would go towards the Haverford Area YMCA itself, which is not the case.)

In addition to this investment, Blue Cross will spend $500,000 toward the construction of a new wellness center which is being built as part of the project, Cashman said.

The Haverford Area Y also received a $250,000 donation from PECO to support the “PECO Running and Walking Track” at the new Y. Dick Webster, vice president of regulatory policy and strategy for PECO, said he is a lifelong member of Haverford Township and a Y board member.

The Haverford community is the “perfect place” to build a Y because it is a “family community with a tremendous tradition of supporting its young people,” Webster said.

Mike Kandravi, chairman of the Capital Campaign Committee for Haverford Township YMCA and founder and CEO of the 401K Rollover Store, said financial support is still needed for the project. Kandravi said he was “thrilled to be a
part of this important project that will impact children and families for years
to come.”

Young people were the focus of Tuesday’s ground breaking ceremony.

“This is what it’s all about, the , and the band," Seventh Ward Commissioner James McGarrity said during his comments.

The Haverford High School Marching Band performed before speeches were given and the Lynnewood Elementary School fourth and fifth grade chorus sang the national anthem.

During the speakers’ remarks, Flynn presented the fifth graders from Lynnewood and the Sacred Heart School with free, one-year Y memberships which they can redeem in the fall of 2013, when they will enter seventh grade and the new Y is scheduled to open. 

The free memberships are part of the Y’s seventh grade membership initiative, where Alaina Whelan, 11, a fifth grader at Lynnewood, was excited to receive her free membership.

“I’m happy because I can walk here from my house,” Whelan said, adding that she enjoys Zumba, a Latin-inspired dance fitness program and plans to use her Y membership to “work out” at the gym.

Joe Matthews, 11, a fifth grader at Lynnewwod, said he plans to use his membership for “swimming and exercising” at the Y.

Carl Everett, board chairman of the Haverford Area YMCA, told the Haverford-Havertown Patch that the ground breaking “confirms to the community that we’re going forward and we’re on the path to completing an outstanding facility.”

Everett said the Y “will be a centerpiece of the community” which will draw people not only from Haverford, but from surrounding areas, such as the Main Line and Upper Darby, Drexel Hill in particular, “once they realize how close this is.”