PARIS – If the Oxford Hills area can raise $7 million to expand the local hospital, why couldn’t it raise several million more to create a new YMCA Center?

That’s the vision of a committee that’s been meeting for nearly two years on the project and is ready to take it to the next step. Members said they’re now forming a board, and were very encouraged when two high-profile community leaders agreed to join it.

They are Timothy Churchill, the chief executive officer of Western Maine Health, and Mark Eastman, superintendent of the SAD 17 School District. They see the process taking three to five years, involving up to $300,000 in seed money, an outside market study, a capital campaign and design development, before construction would begin.

They are also encouraged by the results of a recent needs assessment study conducted among a diverse group of 50 selected community leaders. Those results showed that 86 percent felt the community needs a YMCA, and that 48 percent felt the area could support a multi-million-dollar fund-raising effort.

Since many programs possible at a YMCA facility would be health-related, and also involve children and at least one swimming pool, the presence of the two influential community members speaks to the high level of enthusiasm the committee has received thus far, organizers said.

“A recreation center can be a tremendous source of community pride,” said committee member Celia Dieterich, as she gave a PowerPoint presentation to a small group Monday at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School. YMCAs in Maine and elsewhere provide a wide variety of health and fitness programs as well as after-school-care programs for children, she said. Besides a pool – listed as the No. 1 priority in a needs assessment study – there are opportunities for gymnastics programs, a wellness center, basketball, volleyball, even a climbing wall.

“The possibilities are endless and just limited to the creativity of the community,” she said.

Dieterich said the successful $7 million fund-raising campaign for the expansion at Stephens Memorial Hospital “shows what a community like the Oxford Hills can achieve” when people work together. Many YMCAs have therapeutic pools and cardiac programs that mix well with the hospital’s mission, and Eastman is said to be very supportive of the concept of an after-school child care program a YMCA facility could provide.

Mike Harrison, national network consultant for YMCA, which celebrated its 150th birthday two years ago, said he was very impressed at the fund-raising capacity of the community as demonstrated by the hospital campaign.

“If the timing was right, and the right people get involved, it could happen,” he said.

He recommended an Oxford Hills YMCA be operated independently, rather than tied to other Maine facilities, because of the history the YMCA has in this area. He also said any fund-raising effort should incorporate an endowment, so that once the facility is up and running, its operational costs can be sustained.

In the 1980s into the mid-1990s, the YMCA ran some very successful summer programs at Norway Lake, but fund raising and interest in general was hampered by the lack of a facility, and the YMCA programs were disbanded.

A new YMCA facility, whether housed in an existing building or built new, would cost at least several million dollars, Harrison said. Bath recently completed a YMCA that cost $6.4 million, and Camden-Rockport has opened a state-of-the art YMCA Center after raising $9 million.

“You can look at it in phases,” he said, if that seems the best approach, first developing a swimming pool and adding on programs later.