RAPID CITY, SD -- The Rapid City (SD) YMCA is calling it quits on a proposed $13.2 million expansion to its facility. After two years of fund-raising, the Y had raised about $8 million.

“We’re tickled with knowing what we have raised, but the glaring fact is we’re $6 million short,” Roger Gallimore, Y executive director, told the Rapid City Journal.

The expansion was intended to add parking and meet the growing programming needs of the Y, the newspaper reported. The original plan was to build a four-story parking garage with a fifth floor that housed a 15,000-square-foot wellness center and an indoor track. The building was to be funded by donations.

Gallimore told the newspaper that construction costs were considerably higher than they were at the time of the planning. The plan was ultimately abandoned because the Y’s board of directors didn’t want to put the Y’s other program at risk.

Close to 600 businesses, foundations and individuals donated to the project. Donors have the option of having their gift returned or adding it to the Y’s endowment fund or capital reserve.

“We’re going to continue to aggressively pursue capital options to hit those key areas: after-school, wellness and child care,” Gallimore told the newspaper. “This doesn’t mean that the YMCA is going to stop.”

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