Woodstock’s youth center task force expects taxpayers to foot the bill only for the first phase of its ambitious plan for expanded intergenerational recreational facilities, focusing on a new youth center and senior center. The project will be built at Andy Lee Field on Rock City Road.
The estimated cost for the first of three phases is between $8 and $12 million. All three phases would cost about $30 million.
Phase One will include an addition to the existing community center, a basketball court, an indoor gymnasium, a youth center, a state park and additional parking spaces.
Phase Two will involve moving the community garden and tennis courts, putting up a multi-use pavilion, creating a network of walking trails that will wrap around the rear of the property, and including new baseball and softball fields and pickleball courts.
Phase Three will bring an indoor pool and an outdoor pool.
“The indoor pool is clearly the biggest single cost, and again, we’re not asking the town of Woodstock or the people or all of us to pay for that,” youth center task force chair Ben Schachter assured the audience. “We’re only going to do that indoor pool if we can raise those funds externally.”
For Phase One, the task force is pushing to have a bond referendum this March or April, task force member Laurie Osmond said.
Schachter implored the town board to support a referendum, noting that the town will have paid off most of its debt by the end of the year.
“And so if you look at the 2024 budget, the town allocates about $380,000 for interest payment for the bonds,” he calculated. “And today, my understanding is those all go away, except for one that’s about a $75,000 payment after 2025. And what that means is there’s essentially $300,000 that the town can pay each year and not have it impact taxes, versus where we were in 2024.”
Schachter said that the town “can then borrow five or six million dollars without a change in tax impact.”
There were critics among those who commented on the plan. “We need to be bringing young families into this town. We need affordable housing. We need artist housing. These things were delineated in the comprehensive plan. This is not going to bring people to this town,” Michael Mulvey said.
Schachter disagreed. “I think what we’re trying to do is create a community that families want to live in,” he said.
Councilmember Bennet Ratcliff questioned the need for a multipurpose pavilion as outlined in Phase Two. “I don’t think anybody, when they did the survey said, hey, we need a big multi-use pavilion, and we need to, we need to put it right in the middle of a green space,” Ratcliff said.
Former town supervisor Jeff Moran was supportive of the project. He said it was one way to attract and keep young families. “We’re losing children for all sorts of reasons, and we can’t put up an affordable housing complex,” he said. That was RUPCO’s job. “But what we can do is make a really attractive field, youth center, rec center, senior center, all of that, if we have the political will to do that.”
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