The Catoosa County Board of Commissioners on Feb. 15 ended the movement to build a YMCA wellness center at Benton Place campus with a 3-2 vote, choosing instead to allocate available land for a joint satellite campus for Dalton State and Northwestern Technical colleges.

Commissioners decided not to lease seven acres behind the

Catoosa County Learning Center to North Georgia YMCA, contradicting a September 2003 resolution to commit 17.3 acres at Benton Place for a YMCA.

Commissioners Jim Emberson and Ken Marks and Chairman Bill Clark voted against allowing YMCA to build on the county-owned property. Commissioners Ron Gracy and Bobby Winters voted in support of the planned facility.

“We are disappointed,” North Georgia YMCA director Tripp McCallie said. “Especially in light of the number of concessions we have made in regards to the original signed resolution.”

McCallie said all options will be explored including finding another site in Catoosa County or possibly building the wellness center in another county.

“We can make a big difference in the community if given the chance,” McCallie said before the vote.

In July 2002, commissioners allocated 19.3 acres for a satellite campus for Northwestern Technical College, and late last year Dalton State College officials also expressed interest in a satellite campus at Benton Place.

A survey released in December revealed that commissioners promised out too much land and only 34.83 acres remain on the campus that also houses the Colonnade, Catoosa Health Department, library, senior center and will soon feature an amphitheater.

“There was just not enough room for all three of them,” Clark said, adding that the current commission must make decisions based on current information and factors.

“No commission can bind (the commission) that follows it,” he said.

Emberson said education is a priority for the county, and the schools would not come if the YMCA was approved.

“We felt like we were in a lose-lose situation,” he said. “We wanted both the schools and YMCA out there desperately.”

Emberson said under the current proposed plan both Dalton and Northwestern will share a facility, including classrooms and some teachers.

Altogether the two colleges will inhabit about 25 acres, he said.

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In a letter written to commissioners by Northwestern’s President Ray Brooks, he said that room for expansion must be allowed. He said 25 acres is less than the usual space needed for a satellite campus.

“We would not seriously consider investigating (a new campus) unless there is growth potential,” he wrote.

During the meeting, both Emberson and Marks noted the colleges’ plan does not leave seven contiguous acres available for the YMCA.

Gracy said numerous people young and old voiced support for the wellness center, including Catoosa Sheriff Phil Summers, who drafted a letter in favor of the new facility and its benefits for youth.

YMCA member Tamma Smith said she drives her daughter to the Hamilton Place location because the current Fort Oglethorpe site does not have a pool.

She said the non-profit organization’s new site would benefit all ages and physical abilities and also keep money in Catoosa.

Commissioner Bobby Winters said there are still questions about how much area is actually available and what may fit.

“(YMCA) could have gone in the field right in front of the Colonnade,” he said.

McCallie said the current YMCA in Fort Oglethorpe is only 10,000 square feet and services are limited by the size.

The new site was expected to serve 7,500 residents compared to the current 522 members at the current location, he said.

The proposed facility would have been approximately 58,000 square feet and included indoor and outdoor pools, a gym and wellness center, aerobics studio, member nursery, a youth center, family locker rooms and meeting spaces.

Hutcheson would have occupied approximately 6,000 square feet and used the site as a satellite facility