BATAVIA Conversations over a proposed downtown healthy living campus joining the Genesee County YMCA and Rochester Regional Health’s United Memorial Medical Center will continue to progress from a shared spirit to a potential structure with a boost from the City of Batavia.
City Council on Monday backed a previously-submitted request for $45,000 in Rural Business Development funding to aid a feasibility study for a new development on adjacent Main Street land housing the YMCA and UMMC’s Cary Hall.
Officials from both UMMC and the Y remain optimistic that the project, driven by a task force of local leaders, can be transformational for Batavia.
Rob Walker, the CEO of the GLOW YMCA, envisions a facility that enhances the Y’s services and tightens the link between health care providers and treatment delivery. “We’re trying to make the connection points closer, so people can change their behavior and health right here.”
For the YMCA, the project could substantially expand a reach that currently has approximately 3,000 members. Walker said similar projects have doubled membership in other communities.
“That would be another 3,000 happier people, better families, stronger lives, increasing the scope and impact we can make in the community,” Walker said.
Daniel Ireland, UMMC’s president, pictures outreach efforts for chronic illnesses, diabetes and nutrition eliminating a barrier on the path to healthier lives; as well as easier navigation to specialized health care services.
“It’s the perfect opportunity: at the Y, people are working to stay healthy. This is another piece to making healthier communities.”
For UMMC, the project is viewed as reinforcing its primacy as the region’s source for health care.
“What we’re trying to do as a health care resource is to find different ways to get patients to level of care they need,” Ireland said. “At first glance, people seem to be very well behind it.”
Conducting a feasibility study is an important step in clarifying the details of the partnership, the project and what a future Batavia will need in terms of healthy living services.
“It’s (to see) that we’re doing the right thing, built to right size, with the right programs in right locations,” Walker said.
“A lot of it is validating the assumptions on the table, not how big architecturally, but conceptually,” Ireland said. In a memo to the city council, he estimated the study would cost $100,000, with the remaining funding coming from the state’s multi-million annual Consolidated Funding Application and other grant funds.
The design phase for the proposed partnership Ireland estimates that the market research phase of information-gathering will take the group into the summer, with more feedback coming as the 2016 calendar gets shorter.
“My heart is so motivated to make this work that I’ll jump through every hurdle I can,” Walker said, “and Dan is built the same way.”
