ROCKLAND — The Penobscot Bay YMCA’s expansion to the Rockland waterfront will focus on quality child care and fitness services. Executive Director Troy Curtis said the expansion is something he has been exploring for years and should be completed by November 1.

“We’re very much positioned in the northern part of the county and the population base is really Rockland, Thomaston and Warren,” he said. “We’ve had a strong desire to better service those areas.”

The new location, replacing Amalfi on Water Street, will target child care, fitness and wellness services. The building will contain three rooms for child care, divided by age, a 2,500 square-foot workout area and a 900 square-foot workout studio space.

Curtis said that affordable and professional child care services were lacking in the city of Rockland. He says the YMCA’s approach is to tackle unmet needs rather than compete with existing services in Rockland.

“There should have quality affordable child care available to anybody regardless of their financial situation,” said Curtis. “Making sure that it’s accessible to the community is important to us.”

He said the expansion into Rockland is in line with the YMCA’s social responsibility mission. In addition to providing new child care space at the new location the YMCA will begin after school programming at the South School and Lura Libby School.

Curtis said he’s most excited about these programs. When looking for unmet needs in the area he found that the South School had no existing program and the Lura Libby School program was shutting down because its director was retiring.

The programs will begin Sept. 3 regardless of the construction status of the new location. They will be held at each school and incorporate arts and crafts, outdoor games, themed projects, homework help and nutritional snacks.

Curtis said he wants to find people from the southern Knox County area to run the programs and at the new YMCA, he want’s familiar faces.

He said that growth is a primary driver behind the YMCA. He expects 400 to 600 new members from the expansion. Right now a big barrier to membership is the drive to the Rockport location. Half of the member’s currently are from Camden or Rockport despite the population base being the Rockland area.

Although the primary goal is responding to unmet needs in the Rockland area, Curtis does think the expansion will significantly relieve pressure on the Rockport YMCA.

“If you come here on a Tuesday night in January you can’t find any parking, the place is mobbed, there’s no fitness equipment available,” he said. “If this project takes 15 cars out of the parking lot that’s a really good thing for everybody.”

The new YMCA will use its studio space to offer several of the most popular fitness programs including the cardiac rehabilitation and Livestrong programs. Programs will be offered before work, during lunchtime and in the evening. However the space will remain open for member use throughout the day to achieve a balance between open use and planned programming.

Financially, Curtis said he’s, “100 percent confident that this is going to happen.”

An anonymous donor has promised a $100,000 matching gift; asking local businesses have raised $85,000 towards this. Curtis said they are asking businesses to consider $10,000 gifts spread over three years to pay for an initial $300,000 investment.

He said $200,000 will pay for initial capital costs including equipment and the remaining $100,000 will be used for startup costs and to cover losses over the first few months.

Operating costs will be covered mostly by membership fees, as the Rockport YMCA has done. The YMCA has a program called Membership for All that dictates membership fees by income, so somebody making $75,000 a year will pay more than somebody earning $30,000. Yearly fundraising helps cover the remaining operating costs.

“We’re all about removing barriers to participation, and that fundraising element helps towards that,” Curtis said.

In line with the YMCA’s concentration on social responsibility Curtis said this expansion is really about responding to unmet needs rather than profiting financially. The volunteer based organization hopes to gain a lot more volunteers from the southern Knox County area through this project.

Curtis said the YMCA is really about instilling values and ensuring wellness.

“We do everything we can to make sure we’re contributing to the well being of the community by instilling good values — caring, honesty and responsibility — in all of our programs,” he said.

Ari Salas can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com