They say when one door closes another opens, and that seems to be the case for those involved in bringing a YMCA to Moore County. 

CEO of the YMCA for the Sandhills Rick Houp shared that he met last week with Southern Pines Town Manager Reagan Parsons and Mayor Carol Haney regarding the search for a site to build the new YMCA on. 

“We spent almost an hour and a half together and we were evaluating various options, trying to identify what land is private what land is accessible …and through that process, there came what I considered one of those ‘what if’ or ‘aha’ moments where we identified…where the town manager identified a piece of land that could be pulled out of a larger project to be used by the YMCA,” shared Houp.

This potential site meets the criteria Houp is looking for in a site which are road visibility and accessibility at a traffic light. If this site becomes the future location of the YMCA, the entire building will be able to be seen from the road, a desirable trait. 

This piece of property is a couple of acres smaller than the property they were initially planning to build on, but Houp shared that according to the town manager it was probable that the land that was originally going to be given to the YMCA could still be used by the Y for its summer camp programs and other activities. That original property is within walking distance of this new potential site. 

“Once all the bridges are crossed, this could have a very wonderful YMCA facility and tremendous amount of parking and be highly visible to the community and most of all highly accessible to the community as well. So in my estimation, and [in] talking about it [with] some of our board members, this property is actually a better location for a YMCA. And with access to the other land we would actually have more property they could provide programs and services on,” shared Houp. 

The Town Council has not yet had the opportunity to hear the pitch. Houp said this could go to the town council as a potential site as early as the end of this month. 

Houp, the YMCA board and Southern Pines leaders are all committed to bringing the YMCA to the community.