Last year two local YMCA organizations, Freedom Valley YMCA and the YMCA of Philadelphia & Vicinity, decided to merge. When the merger was in the news, there was a passing reference that they would find a new home in Conshohocken. We tried to find out if that meant a corporate office or an actual facility, but never got an answer.
Today we discovered this online slide presentation, which mentions the future opening of a YMCA in Conshohocken. Under the header, “What the Merger Will Do” it states, “The combined YMCAs will build a branch in Conshohocken to serve a community that has NO Y today.”
We emailed John Flynn, president and CEO of the Philadelphia YMCA and asked if this was still in the plan. He responded, ‘We are in the early stages of searching for a site for a new Y in the Conshohocken area. We also plan to relocate our Association Offices to the area in July of 2014″.
Notice that he said “Conshohocken area.” The only area I can think there is space for such a facility is down Conshohocken Road or Alan Wood Road (both Plymouth Township with a Conshy address).
But we have to ask, would the Moore Chevrolet be able to meet the YMCA’s requirements? Being adjacent to the borough’s athletic fields make it an interesting location and it is the cross roads of three municipalities.
If it does meet the requirements, and the YMCA can raise the money, it would be great if all the parties to get into the same room and figure it out. It would just make sense.
The next question is what affect this would have on the Fellowship House, which provides a lot of the same programs and services as a YMCA. We will explore this question in a follow-up story.
Stay tuned.