‘Defense’ Keeps YMCA in Top Shape
Nearly 8,000 Southington residents belong to the Southington YMCA, where they take advantage of health and fitness options that range from swimming, strength training and cardio to yoga and zumba, not to mention health classes and childcare.
Given how much use it gets, the Y's staff have made it a priority to keep the facility in top shape and consider how it can best serve its users.
“We’re serving a huge population in Southington,” said Branch Executive Director Jay Jaronko. “We have to make sure the facility can continue to meet the needs of the community.”
A few years back, the Y’s umbrella organization, the Southington-Cheshire Community YMCA, asked an advisory firm, Grow Development, to take a look at the facilities in the two towns and identify where investment should be targeted. The firm’s overall message, according to Jaronko, was that, “Cheshire is worth investing in for 'offense,' Southington is worth investing in for 'defense'.”
“For a while, we did not know exactly what that meant for us,” said Jaronko. “Eventually, Kevin Simms, our operations director, and I realized that ‘defense’ means making sure our critical infrastructure doesn’t fail, because if it does fail, we’re looking at a months-long shutdown.”
That advice eventually led the Y to invest in six major renovation projects. Not all of them are splashy, but they are all intended to keep the Y operating at its fullest capacity now and for years to come.
Front Door Replacement
“The first project I’ll point out,” said Jaronko while taking the Outsider on a tour, “is the front doors. When this entrance opened in 2004, these were automatic doors. The heating and cooling losses from them were incredible. It’s also a safety concern, since there’s no way to lock the doors without rushing up to them. The Police Department identified that as a potential risk.”
“Replacing the automatic doors with swing doors cuts down on cost and risk. In addition to that, we were spending a lot on maintenance for the automatic doors.”
Family Locker Room
Jaronko next pointed to a new family locker area for the pool. “We don’t have enough family locker room space, so we added to that,” he said. “All the floors and ceilings are new. What differentiates this space from the other locker rooms is that this is a space for parents with their kids, or older couples who help each other get dressed. No one gets naked, everyone changes inside the stalls. A father can come in here with his daughters, mothers can come in with their sons, and everyone can use the space.”
“One of our long-term goals is to create more space like this. But that will be costly,” he said, since it would require alteration of load-bearing elements. “So, medium term, we said, let’s make this space as nice as we can.”
Pool Retiled
The next item on Jaronko’s project list was the swimming pool: “This pool is the only indoor pool in town. So you’ve got the high school here for the swim team meets, and practices for our own swim team, the Rays.”
“We regrouted the whole pool. We drained it, and brought in a company to replace all these little one-inch tiles. The grout wears out over time. We were seeing that it was dissolving, and a little leak in a pool of this size can be a major problem. Now, we shouldn’t have to regrout for about 15 years.”
“There’s also ductwork beneath the pool that was replaced, that helps with the air circulation.”
Weight Room Deep Clean
Next on his list was the weight room: “This is a space that is very busy in the afterschool hours, and it’s mostly used by young people. One thing we’re seeing now is that young people are gravitating towards lifting, both young men and young women.”
“This didn’t have any major renovations, but we detail-cleaned everything in here. It was very rewarding. I won’t say we used Q-tips, but we got down to details. Floors, racks, stands.”
Cycling Room Modernization
The cycling room is a compact space near Studio 29 and the Health and Wellness Center. “This was a space, a cycling studio, that had been open pre-COVID,” Jaronko said. “We never reopened it after COVID. We were doing cycling classes in the basketball court. The reason for that was because of the HVAC here. The unit needed to be redone.”
“We decided to bring the cycling studio back, but to make it modern and very special. We stripped, stained, painted, and put in new sound barriers. All the sound equipment and all the lighting is new. We can change the color and intensity of the light to all the colors of the rainbow.”
“We wanted something that was a ‘wow,’ visually, and I think we succeeded at that. We opened it back in June.”
Health and Wellness Center
The Health and Wellness Center is the room full of equipment visible on the left side of the main building as you enter from the parking lot. “This is the biggest project,” Jaronko said, “and the one that took us the longest.”
“There are two main projects. The first was to replace all of the HVAC. The old units were at the end of their useful life. This is all new. These units will help us with controlling the temperature, air quality, carbon dioxide. It’s also way less obtrusive.”
“Second, this floor all used to be carpet. It was carpet since the day this room opened. And we shampooed it, vacuumed it, cleaned it, and it was still… well, you know carpet. Now we have this new smooth floor.”
“I’m proud of this project. It’s not a bright shiny new thing, but it’s investing in the environment. It’s how we stay relevant.”
Pickleball and Yoga Grow in Popularity
Jaronko said that pickleball has witnessed a big rise in popularity the past few years. “I played pickleball in high school in 2000. When it became popular in recent years, it blew me away,” he said.
“Ten years ago, we had two courts and they were probably used twice a week for two hours. Now we’ve got three courts in the basketball court, for five days a week, five hours a day.”
In addition, there is a growing demand for yoga and pilates. “We have chair yoga classes in the gym with up to 70 people.”
Jaronko said that the next thing the Y wants to focus on is redoing Studio 130 in the Spirit Mind Body Center, which is used for yoga and barre classes and other activities. That room, he said, “is a work in progress. We’re not done. It is definitely getting more use than we planned for at first. That’s next, and there’s a vision for that space.”
