On Monday, August 11, the Pampa Youth & Community Center held a groundbreaking ceremony to signify the exciting changes and expansion the beloved establishment will be undergoing for the next year and a half.
PY&CC Board President, Dr. Jay Johnson informed everyone who came to celebrate the event what the plans are and expressed his gratitude for the community support the youth center has received since its conception, while also sharing fond childhood memories of the time he spent there with many others in attendance feeling the same sentimentality.
“This is really an exciting time for all of us, but I think also for our city,” Jay said. “This building right here has been here since 1960, and it has functioned very well. It’s been a great building for a lot of young people and not just the young people.”
“It’s a great day for us to be here, and I want to give credit to the founders of this place. Most of you may not know them because most of them had children that were my age, and I knew these men because of their children. I say ‘men’ because in 1954 when the Youth Center was founded, it was all men except the donor was Inez Carter. Things have changed since the 1950s and we’ve got three wonderful women that are on our board and we couldn’t do this without them. It’s great to have all these ladies that help us out.”
“If you knew those guys, Rufe Jordan comes to mind for all of you, he was a part of that original founders group. Dr. Joe Donaldson, Dr. J.B. Veal was an orthodontist here, Floyd Watson was a banker here, Aaron Sturgeon was an attorney, Bill Waters was an attorney-there’s probably ten more. These are men that helped build Pampa right after World War II-these guys were instrumental.”
“Pampa was fortunate to have those far-sighted men who were on that committee, and were also smart enough and far-sighted enough to buy this whole property here. We own all this property plus the property right across the street. We rent that baseball field for $1 a year, so you can see our goal is not a good model for a business. Our goal is to provide something for the community that everyone can afford and everyone can enjoy. I’ve talked to people who have said we should charge more for our services, and that’s never been our goal and fortunately it’s never had to be our goal.”
“In a snowstorm one day about three and a half or four years ago, I sat out here with a friend of mine who was an engineer and said, ‘what do I need to do to get this moving?’ He gave me some good advice and told me who to talk to and how to get the ball rolling from an engineering standpoint. I’ve had other people that got on our board that helped and encouraged it. Lee Waters I want to mention because he is the President of the M.K. Brown Foundation, and they are going to give us a nice gift. Lee came to me five years ago and said, ‘we’re looking for something that will make a significant difference in Pampa for the next several years. Do you think the youth center is something we could put money into that would give Pampa something that they could be proud of?’ The M.K. Brown Foundation has done several things here in Pampa, and so I want to give Lee credit for getting me moving on this whole thing. There’s a lot of good people in Pampa that have reached in their pockets and written checks, a lot of great people and foundations.”
“What we’re going to do is the pool area and the old facility over there will be demolished, and because this building right here is in really good shape on the inside, we’re going to tie onto it and build everything out here (toward the west). It is 28-29,000 square feet, so it will be a big facility with a six-lane pool. We don’t charge the school district for what we’re doing and haven’t for many years. The swim team meets here, the tennis meets here when the weather is poor, and we’ve even had the basketball time here when they remodeled McNeely a few times. Our goal is to share what we have here with our community.”
“Another interesting fact is I was here the day the center opened. I was nine years old, and it was a big day! I was in 4th or 5th grade, and there were two high school kids who were doing a high-dive exhibition. Those two were my heroes for a long time. I’ve enjoyed the youth center as a child-I learned to play racquetball and handball in there, and I’ve just used it a lot and knew how important it was.”
The construction crew who will be working on the project is Sawatzky Construction out of Weatherford, Oklahoma, and one member of the crew, Mac McCune, has ties to Pampa and is excited to be building something for a town and community he has a fondness for.
“We had an office out here back in the 80s outside of town and I spent a lot of time in Pampa,” Mac said. “When Jay called and said, ‘hey, your grandpa added on to this building a long time ago and I want you to come look at it,’ I said, ‘I’ll be there tomorrow!’ I’m excited to be back in Pampa and helping you guys out and I’m excited about the project. There’s a lot of memories here for me.”
Jay also mentioned that the project is expected to take between 12-14 months, with a projected date in early 2027, if not right before.
“One of our goals was to get dirt moved by August 15, so we’re ahead of that thanks to Carter Sand and Gravel right down the road there,” Mac said. “We’re going to start moving some dirt around, and hopefully we’ll have another notice to proceed by October 1, so I would say hopefully right before 2027.”
Jay also mentioned that during this time, the facilites will stay in operation and the construction will have little to no interruption or disruption in the day-to-day activities.
Although the groundbreaking has only started, Jay is excited for what the future holds and his vision is to utilize all the property the youth center owns and expand their services.
“I would love to see a Phase Two and build some more gymnasiums and stuff like that for pickleball and volleyball tournaments, little league basketball and things like that, to bring in sports tourism to our town. Those are my long-term goals.”
Mayor Mike Borger was also in attendance for the ceremony and expressed his excitement for this new endeavor.
“As citizens of Pampa, we thank you Jay Johnson for your passion and energy to get this done. This is great news!”
“I’m really excited and we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Jay closed. “We’ve got a great board that is very supportive and I’m looking forward to great things here. I’m excited to have Sawatzky on board with us, and I’m encouraged by all of you who encourage us here. Thank you all for being here today.”
