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Wallace credits YMCA employees

• The Albany YMCA's new director discusses his journey to the position and future plans for the organization.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — It was a smooth transition for Dave Wallace into the executive director position at the Albany YMCA, but Wallace credits the organization’s employees for the seamlessness of the change.

“I knew very early on during this transition process, once Tim (Ward) retired that that transition wouldn’t be that difficult, just because of the staff here,” Wallace said during an interview this week in his office at the Y’s Gillionville Road facility.

“There’s tremendous longevity with the staff.”

Wallace moved into the executive director’s spot from the associate executive director’s position, which he held for five years. He said that tenure familiarized him with the strengths and weaknesses of the facility.

A native of Berea, Ky., Wallace has worked at YMCA facilities in Kentucky and North Carolina, though he started in public recreation directly out of college in 1982.

After making contacts in the southeastern United States, he was notified by former Albany YMCA Associate Director Judy Powell in mid-2002 that the Albany Y was looking for somebody to fill her position.

It was the small-town community, Wallace said, that appealed to him.

“It’s just, you wave to people on the street. You know everyone and everybody knows you,” he said. “I wouldn’t classify Albany as a Mayberry, but it has that appeal to me.”

Wallace started as a program director with the YMCA and has a total of 18 years experience with the organization. Because he’s worked with the Y’s members directly in such capacities as program director, he can better serve as the director now.

“I’ve done a little bit of everything, from running pools to organizing youth sports,” he said. “That’s really where the rubber meets the road.

“That’s really an asset, I think, to an executive director or any sort of person in this capacity, is you have a broad base of experience.”

Wallace said the Albany Y would be focusing on the construction of the Lee County YMCA branch for now — a project begun by Ward — though he said he wanted to focus on the longterm project of expanding the Y’s Sports Park to make more accommodations for families there.

Because the sports park is five miles from the central facility, parents of children practicing or playing sports there must travel to use the Y’s facility, he said.

“There’s a tremendous amount of development out there and a lot of (activity) at the sports park for about eight months out of the year, so we’re considering developing the park into more of a family center,” he said. “They can do their thing while the kids are out there.”

But, Wallace pointed out, that would be a longterm project that wouldn’t come to fruition any time soon.

“The Lee County project is obviously the biggest thing in our (plans) right now, getting that first phase built and continuing to grow in Lee County,” he said.

The new Lee County building, a 7,116-square-foot facility project, had its foundation blessing in late February. Land has been cleared for the construction on Robert B. Lee Road, and the building’s foundation has been poured, Wallace said.

The slab for the floor is scheduled to be poured Tuesday.

All of the Y’s construction projects, Wallace said, are to “make the Y accessible logistically for the community.”

As to the main facility on Gillionville Road, there are no plans to improve it any time soon, since the last renovation was completed in 2002.

Concerning future plans, Wallace says he’s happy to be where he is for now.

“It’s an honor for me to be here and be in this position and work with these folks,” he said.

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