FAIRMONT– On Monday the Fairmont Area Community Center Foundation (FACC) announced via a press release that it will discontinue efforts to build a YMCA-operated community center in Fairmont. While the project had been in pursuit for more than a decade, the group said that project delays and escalating costs have made the project unaffordable.

Back in 2016, 63 percent of voters in Fairmont supported a local option sales tax of one-half of one percent for 25 years or until $15 million in revenues have been generated for the purpose of funding recreational amenities, trails and/or a Fairmont Community Center.

Since the sales tax went into effect in 2017, about $7.5 million has been collected.

In 2019, the Fairmont City Council approved of a YMCA-operated community center at a cost of nearly $20 million and at that time the council committed $14 million of the sales tax funds with the caveat that that the community center group (Foundation) would need to raise $6 million in private donations, as well as get an agreement in place with the YMCA, which was entered into in the spring of 2022.

While a group of people have been diligently working on bringing a community center to the Fairmont area for more than a decade, the Foundation was born in 2021 when the Krahmer family, Rosen family and Mayo Clinic Health System pledged $4.5 million to the project.

Since then, other individuals and organizations have pledged various amounts of money to the project. To date over $8 million had been raised in donations and pledges.

However the project has seen countless changes over the years, including some changes with contractors, design plans due to rising costs and changes within the city, which the FACC cited in a press release, saying there has been “dysfunction and inconsistency with city leadership.”

The press release also mentioned a “frivolous litigation brought against the city,” which referred to a lawsuit brought forth by the group Fairmont Taxpayers Coalition for Government Transparency, which was dismissed in the spring of 2024.

Nonetheless, the impacts of the lawsuit and from the recent government shutdown have stalled decisions on a federal funding source, according to the press release.

Most recently, the project was set to cost about $30 million and would have included an aquatics area, multi-purpose gym, recreational space and programming for youth, families and seniors.

The Fairmont City Council is expected to talk about next steps at the council meeting on the evening of Monday, Nov. 10.