Rep. LaHood tours Morris YMCA construction site

US Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Dunlap, visited the construction site of the new 60,000 square foot Morris Hospital YMCA at the end of DuPont Avenue in Morris on Tuesday as progress on the new building makes its way toward completion.

Missy Durkin, the Chief Operating Officer of the Greater Joliet Area YMCA, led the tour with Executive Director Jamie Heitman and CEO Katy Leclair. Together, they showed off the new eight-lane swimming pool, basketball gym, children’s activity centers, community room, weightlifting area, cycling area and more. The weightlifting room and basketball gym also have places for people wishing to walk or jog to do so without the need of a treadmill.

The tour began on the west side of the building near what will be the kid’s center.

“We talk about our proximity to the grade school across the street,” Heitman said. “Those kids will be able to walk over and have a space to call their home. It’s their safe space: They can do homework, play some educational video games and have a place where they can build friendships in an after-school environment.”

Heitman said the space will have a 3D printer and other items to promote STEM and keep the children engaged in their own education while they’re not at school. Kids will also be able to spend time there while their parents get their workout in.

Durkin said building the new YMCA wasn’t a cookie-cutter operation, and a lot of research went in to designing a YMCA specifically for Morris.

“It’s really a reflection of what the community told us they’re looking to for programs and services,” Durkin said. “That informed our plan for the spaces, which then resulted in the design.”

Durkin said the building task force and architectural team did well, and even though the flourishes aren’t in the building yet, the beginnings of the end design can be seen.

The building will also have walking trails that connect to the ones at West Side Park, so there will be a larger group of paths for walkers and joggers to follow.

“You talk about what it’s going to do for the community, we think about health and wellness for the citizens of Morris but it’s obviously more than that,” LaHood said. “We think about a hospital collaboration and you think about the school, it’s going to be a community center that’s going to bring the community together. It’s a win-win for the community.”

LaHood said he will defend every nickel of the $3.5 million in federal money that’s going into the project because of what it’s going to do to help grow the community.

“It’s a great facility that the community’s gonna be able to use and it’ll improve the quality of life for the residents,” said Morris Mayor CHris Brown. “What more could we ask for? Nothing better.”

Durkin told the Morris Herald-News in March that this project had more than 98% of its funding come from 75 different people, and the additional funding means the new building will open fully funded and debt-free. The plan right now is to have the building ready for a soft open by December of this year and fully open to the public by January 2025.