Last week, Glenn Ray, owner of G&R Excavating and Demolition in Tyrone, had his structural engineer, Joe Winslow of Stifler & McGraw Engineering in Hollidaysburg, do a site inspection of the former YMCA building that has been standing since 1913. The YMCA closed its doors December 30, 2004.
\nRay bought the building and was officially handed the keys at the end of August, 2007. In January of 2008, he placed advertisements and had news articles written to seek the community\u2019s input on what the fate of the YMCA should be.
\nThe former YMCA was once home to a pre-school program, numerous sports activities, Tyrone Community Players, dance, and many other activities.
\nAs of yesterday, Ray was jubilant and eager to begin the process of restoring the historic building and provide once again, a place for the youth of the community to establish. In fact, that was the idea all along. It was just a matter of putting together a solid plan of action, which he believes he has done.
\nAlthough the building is not in its prime, it’s also not ready to fall down. With Ray being a “demo guy,” with current jobs going on in State College, such as the demolition of the former Lowe’s building by the Toftrees Exit, along with other projects in the area, he has already begun to compile some much needed additions to the YMCA building through that recycling of material.
\n\u201cI\u2019m financially in good shape on it, so I\u2019m not going to borrow any money,\u201d stated Ray. \u201cRight now, we took the insulation and the rubber roof off the Lowe\u2019s building (which was only seven years old) and we\u2019re delivering it inside the YMCA downstairs.\u201d
\nRay estimated that to buy a rubber roof and insulation would cost around $40,000, so he thinks that is a \u201cbig step\u201d in the renovation process. He said much of the things he will need to upgrade the YMCA could come from the former Lowe\u2019s building. He plans on taking off one of the rooftop units there to provide central air conditioning at the YMCA.
\n\u201cI have a $20,000 unit over there with my name on it,\u201d said Ray. He also has accumulated some newer boilers from other job sites in State College, adding, \u201cI\u2019m trashing all the old boilers and putting new smaller ones in, and taking the old boiler room out and making that personnel parking.\u201d
\n\u201cThe old boilers were dinosaurs,\u201d said Ray. \u201cThe stacks are big and most of the gas was going up the stacks.\u201d
\nRay also has some support and guidance from Richard F. Fiore, Sr., President of Leonard S. Fiore Inc. of Altoona, who is experienced in the work Ray is taking on. In fact, Ray said he is meeting with a couple of Fiore\u2019s bosses this week to go over some plans to possibly take out the YMCA gym floor with a skid steer, and actually raise the gym floor to ground level to help prevent flooding disasters.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s two headers in there that we need to move, so I have some people checking to see how high we need it in there,\u201d stated Ray. \u201cI don\u2019t want to lose the basketball there, because we can have it if we get the YMCA running again.\u201d
\nRay also said there is one main doorway back into the former dance hall that may be a structural change with a header, where he would have to cut the wall and put a new header in. He thinks he could bring the gym floor up three feet.
\n\u201cThe whole issue about the flooding, G&R\u2019s going to eliminate that problem,\u201d added Ray. \u201cWe\u2019ll drain that new floor right into a corner and put a huge sump in with a drain over it, so when we get a flood it should take care of it.\u201d
\nAs for new windows for the YMCA building, Ray thinks he might have that issue solved also. Thanks to his demo work going on at Lowe\u2019s in State College, he said that Your Building Center (YBC) has approached him about possibly acquiring some of the items from Lowe\u2019s. In exchange for those items, Ray hopes to work out a deal to get windows for the YMCA.
\n\u201cI have some better plans now, and this structural engineer that\u2019s working with us is working every day,\u201d said Ray. \u201cWe\u2019re making sure no interior main structure rust or damage is there. We\u2019re doing a really extensive study of the structure of the building, to make sure we don\u2019t start dumping money into something for nothing.\u201d
\nHe added, \u201cI\u2019m going to fix it, I feel. We found nothing that I didn\u2019t know about, and I don\u2019t feel we\u2019re going to find anymore. If we do find something, we\u2019ll correct it. We want to fix what\u2019s there.\u201d
\nRay wants to restore the YMCA and make it what it used to be, but better. Since he privately owns it, he will give it a corporation name yet to be determined. But, Ray doesn\u2019t think he can do it alone.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re looking for good, competent people to step up to the plate,\u201d added Ray. \u201cWe\u2019re not looking for their money, we\u2019re asking for their guidance and input through it. I don\u2019t think I can afford going into all this without a group of people helping. I can\u2019t give my life to that Y, I want to, but my business requires me also.\u201d
\nOne of Ray\u2019s ideas is to look for an outside group to be stationed in the building, along with the regular activities that go on at a YMCA type facility. He mentioned possibly a Greyhound Bus Station or ultimately an American Red Cross location, which he feels the community would benefit greatly.
\n\u201cI would really like the Red Cross in that building,\u201d said Ray. \u201cI could help so much more with the Red Cross there. I\u2019d be able to donate stuff from my warehouse to catastrophe sites from tornadoes and floods by shipping lumber or whatever I have.\u201d
\nHe added, \u201cI want to do that, and the Red Cross provides that opportunity.\u201d Ray said he has been greatly influenced by Tyrone\u2019s Salvation Army volunteer Bob Maser, who is constantly worried about kids not having clothes and food in the community, and considers Bob \u201ca good man.\u201d
\n\u201cI always did things, but I never knew that it was that important,\u201d said Ray.
\nBut, first things first. Ray plans on receiving his structural engineer\u2019s report early next week, and plans on making the report public knowledge to Tyrone Borough shortly thereafter. Once the borough receives the report, a meeting will be set up for review and Ray\u2019s plan of action for the YMCA building. Borough Code Enforcement Officer Jim Metzgar will conduct his own on-site inspection, before work can begin.
\n\u201cThe first thing we\u2019re going to do is cap a roof with two and a half inches of insulation on it and fix up the front of the building and the masonry work, so we can open the sidewalk,\u201d said Ray. \u201cI want to get it up and running and give it back as our youth center.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last week, Glenn Ray, owner of G&R Excavating and Demolition in Tyrone, had his structural engineer, Joe Winslow of Stifler & McGraw Engineering in Hollidaysburg, do a site inspection of the former YMCA building that has been standing since 1913. The YMCA closed its doors December 30, 2004. Ray bought the building and was officially […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area","category-excerpts-from-the-tyrone-daily-herald"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}