Acknowledging that talks on a multi-million dollar stadium renovation project have “stalled” for the time being, the president of SUNY Jamestown Community College announced a possible partnership with the Jamestown Area YMCA.

Dr. Daniel DeMarte, JCC president, told trustees Tuesday that he has been approached by the Y to “explore a potential collaboration with JCC in co-locating athletic and program facilities on or in the vicinity of JCC’s Jamestown campus.”

George Panebianco, Jamestown Area YMCA president, told DeMarte in a letter shared with trustees that the collaboration also would include “significant child care space.”

DeMarte received the letter last week, around the same time the college needed to submit its request for capital funding toward the proposed renovation of Russell E. Diethrick Park into a multi-use sports complex.

“It has stalled, somewhat as anticipated,” DeMarte said of the $30 million project which, in addition to securing county and state funding, would require the city to transfer ownership of the stadium and its land to the college.

“We never did get an answer from City Council having made a presentation,” he said, referring to comments he made to the City Council last month. “We were following the capital project request timeline with Chautauqua County. That deadline passed for us last week. The conversation with City Council is at a standstill.”

Panebianco’s letter to DeMarte comes as the Y has seen its own $30 million project stall. For several years now, the organization has been seeking funds to build a new 68,000-square-foot facility on Harrison Street in Jamestown.

As of this past spring, about $4 million in funding had been secured from local and regional foundations.

“It is our hope that a collaboration by the Y and JCC will maximize the use of existing facilities, provide critical mass and result in significant cost efficiencies,” Panebianco wrote in his letter, which was shared with The Post-Journal. “We look forward to the opportunity of working with JCC to investigate all the possible options that could create a transformational project that would benefit both institutions as well as the entire community.”

The scope of the potential partnership and how it may address the college’s need for a viable sports complex is not yet clear.

DeMarte stressed to trustees that talks between JCC and Y officials have only just begun.

“It’s too soon to know where this conversation is going to go,” he said. “As you could imagine, there could be several permutations here. I just wanted to alert you that this conversation is being brought to us. If we move forward, what we would do is redefine the working group on a timeline and determine how we’re going to approach this, if we’re going to approach it at all.”

He added, “It poses a whole new set of opportunities, one of which could cause us to abandon the stadium among the list of potential projects. It may take a totally different approach, depending on where this conversation takes us.”

MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL

Marie Carrubba, secretary for the college board of trustees, said a partnership between JCC and the Jamestown Y had been brought up years ago.

“I think from the very get-go I have been suggesting this very idea of the college collaborating; that the Y project at $30 million, $26 million, was way out of line. … This made more sense to collaborate in terms of staffing (and) to have more hours open. It was a win-win. The child care, you know, has been something that the Y has provided in the past.”

Carrubba said a partnership also may help address JCC’s aging facility, boost enrollment and make the campus “attractive to more people.”

“I think there would be more support from the council on something like this versus what the other project was,” she said. “I don’t know that they felt that it was sustainable.”

In addition to her seat on the board of trustees, Carrubba also is a member of the Jamestown City Council. Her term on the council expires at the end of the year.

In his remarks to city officials in November, DeMarte stressed the need to attract and retain students. He also noted that talks on renovating the stadium have been ongoing with the city for more than three years.

“If we do not upgrade our athletic facilities … we’re at risk of losing the current students we attract to the college. Right now, that’s about 160 athletes each year,” he said last month.

At that same meeting, Maria Kindberg, JCC Foundation executive director, said an upgraded Diethrick Park would help the college promote its sports programs. She said the “vast majority” of high schools have better athletic facilities than JCC.

“We are trying to attract student-athletes to the college, and they are coming to us from high schools where they are playing on turf,” she said. “They are used to turf. They come and look at our soccer field and it just doesn’t stack up.”

JCC has received another proposal that would upgrade Diethrick Park as a baseball-only facility with turf. The plan also calls for establishing a multi-use field for soccer and softball next to the current stadium in addition to installing turf on the current soccer field.

The second proposal, from CPL, has a price tag of $27 million.

Carrubba noted that the city has unallocated American Rescue Plan Act funds that might assist in a collaboration. “This would be a prime time to make sure you get in and state that this is something you really find attractive and want to work with,” she said.